The Initiative
by robbiepoo2341
Summary: Growing up in the Xavier Institute isn't easy. And it's even harder when the Mutant Response Division gets involved. Whether it's weaponized inhibitors or straight up extermination camps, the MRD is making life miserable for the X-Men. And for some of the youngest members of the junior squad, it's literally a matter of life and death.
1. Demanding Hugs and Kisses

**OMG. TWENTY VOLUMES. CAN'T STOP. WON'T STOP.**

 **This is the twentieth volume of the 714 universe, so if you want to see the reading order, check out my profile. Canucklehead Cowgirl and I have been trading off volumes on each other's profiles, and I do the even ones, so if you're here, you know the drill. Here we go!**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: "Demandings Hugs and Kisses"**

It had been quite the summer, and Remy wasn't entirely sure he was ready to get back to anything more 'respectable' as he and Marie arrived back in Westchester. It had been fun, honestly, to stretch his legs and to play a little, make sure he was still the best thief the world knew (he was). And it was fun to work with Marie as well, who cheated her way through beating him on several heists — but he'd taught her a few things that didn't require powers either.

They could have kept going on like that forever — exotic locations, exciting thefts, not-nearly-close escapes… But Remy _had_ promised to come back for the school year, and Miss Annie had even asked him to help cover her classes when she had her little one. And he did _not_ want to disappoint that sweet woman.

So, back they went — their pockets a little fuller and their coats matching and better fitted — to the institute.

It was the weekend before classes were set to start, so all the students were back, and the mansion was as full as ever. It was late afternoon — but still early enough that he was confident that unless Miss Annie was in one of her _extravagant_ baking moods, no one would have started dinner yet. So he would take care of it.

He held the door to the kitchen open for Marie with a crooked smile and a bow. "You jus' make yourself at home, _cher_ ," he told her as he went to the cabinets to start pulling out what he needed. "We gon' have visitors soon 'nuff once dey start smellin' what Remy makin'."

"And what _is_ Remy making?" Rachel asked from the doorway with an easy smile and a wave. "Something classically Cajun, I hope."

"Jambalaya," Remy said with a huge grin Rachel's way as he took in the tanned young woman. "You have a nice summer, Miss Rachel? Look like it."

"The best," she agreed with a grin. "Just got in not long ago from a month in Hawaii."

"When were you there?" Maria asked interestedly. "Perhaps we crossed paths and did not know, _oui_?"

"Did you see Bobby there?" she asked.

"Didn't see nobody but a few dragonflies," Remy laughed.

"Well we were on the opposite side of the big island that Alex was on," Rachel replied.

"And Alex — he know you dere?" Remy teased.

"Yep," she said, nodding. "That's why we ended up on the far side."

"Because he is your uncle, _non_?" Marie asked, trying to piece the relationships together that Remy had told her about while they were traversing the globe.

"Because he called my _dad_ to spill the beans about Bobby and me," Rachel said.

"Ah, zen he is _Oncle D_ _é_ _nonciateur_ ," Marie said with a little twinkle in her eyes that Remy couldn't help but laugh at.

"What he go an' do dat for, _petit_?" Remy asked Rachel as he twirled around the kitchen getting dinner supplies together.

"Just … mostly being a pain I think."

"Well, next time you go to New Orleans, mebbe," he teased. "Ol' Remy don't tell a soul."

"Well, cat's outta the bag now," Rachel said. "Though I think someone must have taken Dad down a notch somewhere along the line. He doesn't want to share with me."

"Well, you ask dat step-mamma o' yours. She like you _petit_. She tell you anytin'," he teased.

"She's a little busy right now," Rachel said with a small little laugh. "She and Lorna had their kids yesterday about two hours apart, so they're both still holed up resting."

Remy's eyebrows shot up. "Already?" he asked. "Hank say de little ones, dey comin' in de fall. Dey early?"

"Not by much," Rachel said. "K and Logan's little girl, though — she was _early_."

Remy stopped moving around the kitchen and gave Rachel his full attention. "Dey alright?" he asked.

Rachel nodded. "Oh, yeah. They're supposed to come back any day now. And Pepper and little Howard are fine, too. You missed them."

Marie laughed at the expression on Remy's face when he heard that. "It was _your_ idea for that trip to Dubai."

"I … jus' thought … don' dey usually come a lil' bit late?" Remy asked, slowly going back to prepping his Jambalaya.

"That … is exactly what Annie asked? But apparently, that really only applies to the _first_ ," Rachel said.

"And you weel be ahving more of these, then, yes?" Marie asked. "Re-mee was telling me there was a spell of some kind." She laughed lightly. "'Ow fortunate I was not here then. My powers, they do not allow me the plea-zure." She gestured at herself. "A lee-tle one, she would not dissolve with me. I 'ate to think what a magical spell would do weeth zat."

"Well, not all of them were spell babies," Rachel said with a smirk. "Most of them, sure. But as I understand it, any more will be based on what the parents decide."

"Jus' a bit of accidental magic, _cher_ ," Remy said with a wave. "It happen."

Marie laughed again. "Yes, that is 'ow most happen."

Remy grinned her way broadly before he turned back to Rachel. "So, Lorna and Miss Annie. Dey little ones — dey look like dem or dey dads?"

"You could come _meet_ them, you know," Rachel pointed out.

"I bring 'em jambalaya later," he said with a shrug.

Rachel grinned and turned toward the front door. "Oh. Well, looks like the little scene stealer is here. Finally."

"And which one ees that?" Marie asked, getting to her feet to come behind Remy and rest her head on his back while he was standing still and adding ingredients, her arms around his middle. "It seems there are so man-ee."

But Rachel didn't have to say anything on who it was when, finally — after what felt like an eternity — the Howletts had arrived with little Sadie, a bit over her original weight and thriving.

"Now," K said as they came into the kitchen, Sadie in her arms. "That is definitely not the first person I thought we'd see. Welcome home, Swamp Rat."

Remy grinned at her as he set down the ladle and, with one arm around Marie, made his way over to the little group. "You still glowin'," he said, shaking his head. "When dis lil' ting get here?"

"Beginning of August," K replied. "Didn't want anyone to beat her here, apparently."

"She like her mama dat way," Remy teased, grinning down at the little girl.

"Here," K said, not really asking before putting the little one in his arms. "She's getting bigger now."

"This is _bigger_?" Marie asked with one eyebrow raised as Remy _carefully_ tucked the little girl in the crook of his arm and she couldn't help shaking her head with a smile seeing how very, very gentle he was being — like the precision he used when he was cracking a safe.

"Yep," Logan said. "Almost half a pound bigger."

"She smaller den de others," Remy said in a soft tone as he sat down, and Marie almost laughed and instead kissed his cheek as she breezed past — literally — to turn off the heat on the stove so he didn't burn anything, reforming over his shoulder a short time later to laugh at the same expression still there.

"You should see the pictures from when Scott came to meet her," K said with a grin.

"They'd golden," Rachel agreed, sitting up on the counter. "Though the one with Peter's pretty great too."

"Video of Kurt's arrival … all … flustered," K said, smirking.

"All of it," Rachel agreed. "And speaking of — you two just missed the newest arrivals."

"Oh? Who was it?" Logan asked.

"Annie and Lorna both," Rachel replied. "Lorna's got a little green-haired boy, and I've got another little sister who looks like Charlie, but I think she'll be lighter-haired."

"Does she need sweet tea?" K asked.

"By the gallon," Rachel laughed.

"Then if I can steal my little girl back?" K said, looking at Remy. "I'll bring her down for Henry to give the green light to and meet the newest Summers-ss...es."

"There are so man-ee of them," Marie said, shaking her head with a little smile as she watched Remy carefully give Sadie back to K. "I cannot keep track with just the names and not the faces, I am sorr-ee," she added.

"No one can," Logan teased. "Why do you think I just call 'em all 'Summers'?"

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow and looked Remy's way. "I thought there was someone called 'Slim'?"

"He gets lots of nicknames," Logan said with a smile as he started off after K. "But almost never 'Summers.'"

"That is confusing," she said with a little frown.

"Not really," Logan defended. "Yell 'Summers'. They all turn around — then ya point at the one you want."

Marie was laughing as she leaned against Remy and the Howletts left to meet the new little ones. "Perhaps we should 'ave come earlier instead of going to Dubai," she teased.

"Rookie time traveling error," Rachel teased as she headed out of the kitchen.

"I... am no time-traveler," Marie pointed out with a little frown.

"Stick around," Rachel laughed.

"Don' you pay her no mind," Remy said, shaking his head.

"No, I 'ave better things to pay attention to," Marie agreed with a little laugh as she turned back to Remy. "Did you want help with your food? Or just compan-ee?"

"Ol Remy don' need no help cookin'. Least of all dinner," Remy said with a smile.

Marie laughed at that and kissed him. "Oh, I know. But you look so _agr_ _é_ _able_ when you are cooking — and when you speak of food, too."

As the two of them flirted and worked on dinner, there was a sudden rush as _all_ of the resident kids filed into the kitchen and lined up, leaning over the counter and just … watching. Waiting for Remy to acknowledge them. And all of them were grinning broadly.

Finally, Krissy couldn't wait any longer and broke into a high-pitched giggle. "I _told you_. I _told you_ you got a Valentine!"

"Shhhhhush," Elin said. "He _knows._ "

Remy just chuckled and turned toward the gathered kids. "You all gon' be nice to Miss Marie, right?" he teased, looking entirely serious — as if they'd be anything but.

"We need kisses," Elin informed him.

"Oh, is dat so?" Remy asked, skirting around the kitchen to crouch to her height. "Well, Miss Elin, you gotta ask nice."

"That's not what my mom and dad say," she countered with a grin.

Remy chuckled. "You want Remy kisses or no, _petit_?" he teased.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You want us to be nice or no?"

"Now, dat ain't nice, _petit_ ," Remy said, shaking his head at her and trying not to grin too broadly.

" _C'est la vie_ ," she replied easily.

Maria laughed out loud. "Oh, so the _leetle_ ones do not mangle ze language, but you, Rem-ee?"

Remy chuckled before he reached out and snatched Elin up, pulling her upside down to tickle her. "You too smart for your britches."

She was giggling madly, but she couldn't let it slide. "I like dresses."

"You too smart for dose too," he teased her before he finally gave her a kiss on her cheek and set her down — and crouched down at the perfect level to be mobbed by the rest of Elin's waiting friends.

Marie disappeared into smoky air to reassemble, sitting cross-legged on the counter overlooking the attack on Remy, laughing to herself; the kids clearly had him on the ropes, outnumbered as he was. "It is more dangerous here than it was in Solna," she teased, perfectly content to watch and not lift a finger to help.

"Hello again," Elin said pleasantly to her, watching the rest of the kids attack the Cajun before she climbed up to sit next to Marie.

" _Bonjour_ ," she said as she pulled Elin a bit closer to her so Elin could see Remy's surrender for herself. "You are the woman of the house, no?" she teased Elin.

Elin just giggled and shook her head.

"Well, I 'ave never seen Rem-ee lose so very, very badly," Marie laughed.

"He's very silly," Elin said with a grin.

"Yes, he is that," Marie agreed. She gently uncrossed her legs and slipped down from the counter to offer Remy a hand up at last once every single one of the kids had 'gotten' Remy and been kissed on the forehead or cheek. "And there are three more coming?" she laughed. "You are going to be very busy. When weel you kiss _me_?"

"After he gets his cupcakes," Krissy giggled.

Marie chuckled and reached over to boop Krissy's nose. "Ah, _oui._ I remember that tradition. _Quelle introduction_."

"You have very pretty words," Sying said as he climbed up to where Marie had just been sitting and sat himself down to smile shyly up at Marie.

"I am French," she explained to him with a smile.

"My mom lived in Paris for a while," Elin said. "Is that where you're from?"

Marie looked delighted. " _Oui_ , I lived in Paris when I was ver-ee young," she said.

"That's where my mama asked my papa to marry her," Krissy supplied, climbing up to join her friend. "Mama says it's pretty there, but Papa says he doesn't remember because Mama's too pretty for him to notice."

"My mom says it's not as pretty as it was," Elin told Krissy.

"Your mom says that about lots of places," Krissy pointed out.

"Dad agrees with her," Elin replied.

"Your mom is right," Marie said with a little laugh. "Paris was _tellement beau_ when I was leetle."

But Elin shook her head. "No, she said the bombs messed up a lot of old stuff."

Marie raised an eyebrow at the little girl and then laughed when she realized there was more to this story than she originally realized. "She is not wrong," she said softly, but before she could say anything else, Remy finally started to untangle himself.

"What's it gon' take for you lil' troublemakers to go play so I can cook us up some'tin to eat?" Remy asked, tossing Chance in the air.

"Oh, Rem-ee," Marie teased. "You cannot cook with an audience?"

"No," he chuckled. "I cain't cook wit a hist'ry lesson."

"Then we weel do something else," Marie said.

"Play games?" Kari offered with a little giggle.

"What do you want to play?" Marie asked the little pink elfling.

"Hide and seek," Charlie said with a grin. "We can help the little little kids hide," she added in a loud whisper to Remy, just in case he was worried anyone would get left out.

"Then I will find you all," Marie promised with a little laugh, and Sying tugged on her sleeve to get her attention and motioned for her to come closer so he could whisper in her ear.

" _You gotta check the ceiling, because some of us can climb,_ " he warned her.

" _Merci_ ," she said with a smile and kissed his cheek, which got a delightedly red-faced giggle out of Sying that had Krissy poking out her lower lip at him as the kids ran off to go hide.

Remy grinned as Marie covered her eyes to count and couldn't resist kissing her. "I tink dey like you, Miss Marie."

She grinned at him and kissed him back. "I think I like them too."


	2. Little Brothers

**Chapter 2: "Little Brothers"**

It was only three days into the semester when the next little one made his appearance — because none of the elflings had been on time, and little Kaleb Wagner just couldn't wait any longer.

After Lorna's quick delivery with Michael, and Annie's nearly-as-quick one with Chloe, Kate had been sincerely hoping that this would go just as easily. And it seemed like the one upside of magic-induced pregnancy was that Billy's spell made things a little easier. Even Pepper's, with the highest risk out of all of them, had gone relatively smoothly.

So it was hardly any time at all before little Kaleb arrived, and to the delight of every single one of the Wagners, the little boy was almost a carbon copy of his father. Instead of the light purple color his sisters had, he was a deep, dark blue. And unlike his sisters, who all had five fingers but three toes, he had the three-fingered look down.

Kari and Krissy were allowed to join their parents after hardly any time at all, and they were both brimming with excitement to meet their baby brother, though Kari wrinkled her nose for a moment.

"No purple?" she asked, sounding almost disappointed.

"No, silly. He's a _brother_ ," Krissy said patiently, patting her sister on the shoulder.

"Oh." Kari thought about it for a moment before she nodded. "Okay."

One of the little bamfs had taken her phone to make sure to get a picture of Kurt holding the little guy — who looked, honestly, a lot like a bamf, but with less hair. The little photographer imp giggled and handed the phone over to Kate so she could send it off to her friends before she set the phone aside and grinned at her husband. "Just look at my boys," she teased.

Kurt beamed back at her for a moment as he sat down next to her, and she rested a chin on his shoulder, while Kaleb seemed content to drift off right then and there — and only just fell asleep before a bright star filled the room, and not only America but Billy and Teddy stepped through.

Billy looked downright sheepish, though it somehow wasn't as obvious as it used to be with the new look — until he started to rub his hand through his hair. "Things're going okay, then? With everybody?"

"Oh, you're fine; come over here," Kate said, waving her friends over with both hands so they could see the tiny little blue ball of fluff.

"Hey, he looks just like your tiny demon minions," America said with a little laugh.

"You're just looking at the coloring," Kurt said, shaking his head. "He has his mother's face."

"Except the eyes," Kate said with a little laugh as she kissed the top of Kaleb's head and then scooped him up so she could hand him to America. "Kaleb, meet your Aunt America. I promise she's not as ridiculous as you think she is."

"He's blue because he's a brother," Krissy explained as America looked downright surprised at being handed the little guy.

"Oh really?" Teddy asked as he crouched down by the two little girls.

Krissy nodded. "We got to be purple and pink because those are _girl_ colors."

"I dunno," Teddy said. "Your Uncle Clint likes purple too."

Krissy scrunched up her nose. "Yeah, I guess," she had to admit.

America just laughed at both of them as she sat down in a chair with the little boy and got wrapped up in his three little fingers.

Kari tugged on the hem of Billy's cape, and he turned toward the little pink elfling with a smile and scooped her up. "Did you want a turn too?" he teased.

"Where's _yours_?" she asked with wide eyes.

Billy grinned at her. "They're with their Uncle Tommy. They're still kind of shy, and we didn't know how many people would be here to meet your little brother."

"I like them," Kari told him with a grin.

He leaned forward to share his secret: "Me too."

With a poof of brimstone and purple flash of light, K, Logan and Sadie were deposited a few spaces down from Kate's bed. "Okay, Kurt, darling," K said, eyes closed. "You need to tell them to stop that with the no warning nonsense."

"Believe it or not, I have," Kurt said with a small smile.

When she finally opened one eye, she took in the scene of gathered friends and one very, very happy Hawkeye and started toward them with her own little one. "Oooh, future besties. Congrats, you two."

Kurt grinned at her. "No reason to fight what works," he teased.

K slipped over between the Young Avengers and bumped Teddy's elbow. "Can I get you or your sweetheart to hold my little one for a minute? I just need to steal the littlest Elf."

"Don't have to make excuses," Teddy teased as he gently scooped up little Sadie. "I'm _so_ here for tiny snuggles."

"It's because you're just so snuggly yourself," she agreed before she stopped just short of America and very purposefully pulled out her phone to snap a few pictures. "Now that … is a good look."

"Yeah, I rock the godmother look," America said smugly.

"Uh huh," Logan said from across the room where he and Kurt were being smug.

"Do you need Lucy's number, K?" Kate asked.

"I think I do," K said. She'd very nearly taken the little Elf, but as America started to hand him over, she diverted and brought Kate her phone. "Just in case you want to snap a few yourself first." She leaned closer to whisper. "Or if you want to hit her when she holds the other one too."

Kate giggled delightedly, glancing over to where Billy and Teddy were both totally spoiling Sadie. "Oh, yes. Gotta happen."

"I think your accomplices will be more than happy to help," K said then turned to finally pick up the little blue Elf. She looked up at Kurt with a clear smirk and held Kaleb a hair closer. "What was it you were saying? _Mine_?"

"Ah, but mine looks so very much like me," he teased.

"Well mine looks like me," she pointed out. "Didn't stop the grabby hands anyhow." She stood next to Logan, and the two of them started to introduce themselves to the little guy.

"Little blue velvet," Logan chuckled.

Kurt nearly startled. "What? _That_ is your name for him?"

"More like a descriptor," Logan said with a wicked smirk. "Unless it bothers you …"

"Whatever happened to 'elfling'?"

"Well," Logan said with a shrug before K handed him the little one. "That applies too. But he's just so fuzzy."

"He's blue because he's a brother," Krissy reported dutifully.

"Lucky thing he wasn't hot pink," Logan replied, sitting down so the girls could sit with him too.

"No, pink is _my_ color," Kari corrected him.

"I'm not arguin' that," Logan promised before he ran his hand over the top of her head and gave her a little look. "No one looks better in pink."

She giggled delightedly. "Mmmhmm."

Billy grinned broadly at the group of them, and though he had been holding Sadie, he gently tipped the little girl into America's arms— and the flash on Kate's phone went off as he went over to go see the little blue elfling for himself.

"Stop that," America grumbled Kate's way.

"Never ever," Kate swore. "You had way too much fun at my expense. Turnabout."

"After you look at her fingers, maybe," K shot back. "I dare you."

America rolled her eyes, though that didn't do anything about the fact that, yes, once she was engrossing in playing with the tiny hands, that was the most open look Kate had seen on her friend's face in _ages_.

Kate was cackling as she sent off the pictures. "Lucy says it's a good look," she reported. "And Cassie says she wants four. Little Americas, that is."

America just gave her a dry, dry look, totally unable to kick her friend's butt for oh-so-many reasons.

When Kate was done razzing America, K took her phone back and made a quick phone call while America was totally tied up. "Hi Lucy," K said before she stepped out of the lab, the phone to her ear and the two of them clearly chatting. All America heard for sure was when K promised that she knew an incredible officiant that could pull it together in a heartbeat.

Kurt was just _grinning_ as K returned. "What time should I be there? I need time to change," he teased.

K grinned back at him. "You know, I can send him over right now, and this thing can be done by midnight if you really want." She looked America square in the eyes. "But really. I know you're young, but … you're not doing yourselves any favors waiting forever."

"Oh, go bother the idiot in the mask dating your sister."

"My future brother in law? Yeah, he's busy. And you … are _coated_ in glitter right now."

"I'm pretty invulnerable to it," America pointed out.

"Not to magic," Teddy teased.

America glared Billy's way, and he held up both hands. "No, no. I have a handle on it," he promised.

"So it would be calculated and purposeful," Logan said. "That's what he means."

"Well, I _could_ ," Billy admitted.

"It'd be a story to tell the grandkids," Kurt said with a laugh.

"Don't even joke; that's how my entire universe was _created_ ," America pointed out with a half-hearted little grumble.

"It's also how Kate turned into a Kindergartener," Logan said. "And she never really recovered."

Krissy giggled and shook her head. "Nuh-uh. Chance and Charlie are in Kindergarten, and Mama is waaaaay older than them."

"Thanks, honey," Kate said, shaking her head.

"She wasn't a few years ago," Logan said.

"Well, yeah, 'cause little elfs turn into big elfs, and little Hawkeyes turn into big Hawkeyes," Kari nodded.

K leaned into Logan and muttered something that Kurt was sure amounted to 'big somethings', but it had Logan smirking, so he wasn't going to interrupt that.

"Inna go to Kindergarten _next_ year," Krissy informed Logan. "Then I'll be as big as Mama when she was little like me!"

"And with less peanut butter on your shirt," Logan agreed.

"I don't like peanut butter. I like grilled cheese."

"You want to go grab a bite to eat and watch a movie while your Mama rests?" K offered.

Both girls shared a look and then broke into wide grins, nodding enthusiastically. "Please!" they said together.

"You can come too, America," K promised as she finally came over to retrieve Sadie and take her to Logan — since she was asleep.

"I'm fine, thanks. I have to go meet up with my girlfriend and … deal with your nonsense," America grumbled.

"Hey, this … this is just turn about," K pointed out. "You were pretty merciless with the demon morning sickness and what not."

"Yes, and so were you," America shot back.

"Yes. And I've had three and married the boy. So. Paid my dues," K pointed out.

"Mmm. Well, I'm impervious to anything but magic, and Billy knows I'll break his nose if he tries, so…"

"You're not impervious to _Lucy_ ," Logan replied before he gave Kate a little wink and the ferals started to usher the bigger Elflings upstairs. "She can talk you into all kinds of things."

"Don't want to be impervious to her," America pointed out with an easy grin before she kicked open a large star now that she was baby-less. "C'mon, boys. You two have little ones you wanna get home to, and then I wash my hands of all of you."

"Love you too," Kate called out with a crooked grin.

"You'll be back in no time," Kurt added.

America just chuckled as she stepped through, with Billy and Teddy making sure to give Kate hugs before they followed.

* * *

Charlie was still trying to decide if she liked this whole Kindergarten thing.

Her brother had totally fought the idea on the first day, since their parents wanted them to at least try going to the school in town so that they could meet more kids their age and try new things… but now that they were almost done with their first whole week of school, Chance very clearly loved it.

Charlie wasn't so sure about it. One of the little boys had already pulled on her ponytail and called her 'bossy', and she was never tired when it was naptime, and she hated being bored and lying on her red blanket pretending to be at least trying to sleep.

She _did_ like reading time, though. Their teacher, Mrs. King, did different voices for different characters like Charlie's dad did, and she let kids bring books from home if they wanted. Charlie wanted to bring _The True Story of the Three Little Pigs_ , because that was her favorite for her dad to read, and she wanted to see if Mrs. King could do the huffing and puffing sneezy wolf with a cold.

She was settled down in the front of the circle, wide-eyed as she listened to the stories, when that same little boy tugged on her ponytail again, and she whipped her head around to glare at him. She had just raised one finger to stick in his face when her brother beat her to the punch by grabbing a handful of the little boy — Aiden's — hair and _pulling_.

Aiden immediately burst into tears, and Mrs. King had to stop storytime to address the crying little boy in front of her, who was wailing and holding his head.

"Ch-Chance pulled my hair!" Aiden wailed.

Chance and Charlie shared a look, and Charlie nearly giggled at the look on her brother's face that clearly said he thought Aiden was a _pain._

"Chance," Mrs. King said in a severe tone as Aiden cried and demanded hugs from the teacher. "We do _not_ pull people's hair."

Chance started to say something, but Aiden was crying too loudly for anyone else to be heard — and the next thing either of them knew, Chance had his name on the 'red' space instead of green and had to sit in time out.

Chance wasn't exactly helping his case with the argument that "he deserved it," but once Aiden was calmed down enough that Charlie thought she could talk to the teacher, she slipped over to tug on Mrs. King's sleeve to get her attention.

"Charlotte, we're having storytime," Mrs. King said patiently.

"But Aiden pulled _my_ hair first," Charlie said.

Mrs. King paused and looked over at Aiden, who was still rubbing his eyes from his crying fit. "Is that true, Aiden? Did you pull Charlotte's hair?"

"He did, he did," piped up one of the little girls in their class. Charlie didn't know her name yet, but she had really, really red hair and so many freckles that Charlie didn't think she could ever count all of them.

Mrs. King let out a sigh before she went back to Aiden to pull him aside — and he had another crying fit when he was informed that he, too, was in trouble and had to sit in time-out. Chance was still in trouble for hair-pulling, but he looked so very, very smug sitting in the corner and grinning Aiden's way that Charlie had to giggle behind her hand.

Storytime wrapped up after that, though Mrs. King had a hard time getting the kids' attention back, so by the time recess came around and Chance and Aiden got to play too, Charlie was just grinning and holding her brother's hand and generally encouraging him.

They were waiting for their turn on the monkey bars when the little girl from before came up to both of them with her braided pigtails bouncing. "We're all looking for four-leaf clovers," she announced with a big grin, gesturing to where a few of the kids from their class were knee-deep in the grass. "Do you wanna play?"

"After the monkey bars," Charlie said — since they had been waiting their turn and she didn't want to get _back_ in line.

"Do you wanna wait with us?" Chance offered.

The little girl bounced in place and nodded. "Okay."

Charlie scrunched up her nose. "You can't cut," she said.

"It's not cutting if she's just _waiting_ with us," Chance argued, mimicking his sister's scrunched up nose.

The little girl looked between the Summers siblings and then just shrugged. "I don't wanna cut," she said, then tossed her braids over her shoulder. "We're just gonna be looking for four-leaf clovers when you get done," she said, then bounced off to where her friends were.

"She wasn't gonna cut," Chance said looking at Charlie with a little frown. "She was just gonna stand there."

"Maybe," Charlie said with a shrug toward there was only one person in front of them before the ladder. "But other kids don't know that."

Chance shrugged one shoulder up. "They could ask."

Charlie broke into a little giggle as she started to climb the ladder. "You like her _braids_ ," she teased.

"Yep!" he replied with a smile.

Charlie giggled all the way through the monkey bars and then waited for her brother to get to the other side as well so she could keep teasing him. "You like her _freckles_. There's a gazillion of 'em!"

"There really are," he said. "I think it's cool!"

"I tried to count 'em during snacktime, but I got lost," Charlie whispered to him, giggling as they made their way over to the four-leaf clover finding expedition, and the little redhead waved at them with a wide grin.

"Did you have fun on the monkey bars?" she asked as Chance and Charlie joined in the search.

"Mmhmm," Chance said, letting go of Charlie's hand so he could look more intently — over by the little girl.

"I'm Hannah," the little girl said, and Chance grinned at that.

"I'm Chance. And that's my sister, Charlie. _Nobody_ calls her Charlotte except Mrs. King," he whispered that last part like a secret.

"I like Charlie's name," Hannah replied at a whisper. "It sounds better on a girl."

Chance grinned. "I like your name too," he said.

Hannah giggled as the group of little kids continued their quest for four-leaf clovers until the bell rang to go back inside for recess. They hadn't found any clovers, but one of the girls in the group _had_ found a spider, and Chance was feeling pretty heroic after rescuing the girls from the spider, even if it was just a little one and not very scary at all.

In all, it was a pretty eventful day, and Chance and Charlie were excited to tell their parents all about it when Annie came to pick them up when the day was over.

Most of the hurt feelings from the hair-pulling incident had calmed down by then anyway, so the two kids had mostly forgotten about it as they talked about their new friends — not just Hannah but her two friends Gina and Lizzie, who both liked Charlie a _lot_ — and how Chance had caught a pretty spider and moved it away from the clovers.

In fact, it wasn't until later, after the bigger students' classes were done and the kids got to go to karate lessons with Logan that Chance even remembered that he'd gotten in trouble at school.

Logan was just getting the kids warmed up — stretches and whatnot — when Chance spoke up to tell him what had happened, totally matter-of-fact as he said, "Aiden pulled Charlie's hair at school today."

Logan frowned and tipped his head to the side. "Why'd he do that?"

"I dunno," Chance said, shrugging broadly. "But he does it a lot."

"He shouldn't be doing that," Logan said, looking a little irritated.

"Well, I pulled his hair right back," Chance said with a grin. "Cuz he shouldn't do that."

Logan nodded once. "Good. Did he stop?"

"He cried a lot," Chance admitted, looking rather sheepish. "Cause he doesn't have as much hair as Charlie, so it hurt more, I think."

"That's not how it works," Logan said.

"But Charlie didn't cry at _all_ , and he cried a _lot_."

"Because Charlie's a lot tougher than he is," Logan told him. "Little girls are pretty tough."

Chance nodded. "Charlie's the best," he agreed. "She told the teacher Aiden was being mean 'cause Mrs. King thought _I_ was being mean."

"Anyone get in trouble?" Logan asked.

Chance nodded. "Mmhmmm. Me and Aiden both got time-out 'cause hair-pulling is bad." He leaned forward and added in a whisper, "Except I'm not sorry, even if Mrs. King made us both say sorry."

Logan tried very hard to hide the smirk, but the boy's earnest look was too much to ignore. "Let me know if you have more trouble," he told him.

Chance nodded. "Okay," he said, perfectly content as he went back to the warm-up.

Karate class was shaping up well now that Krissy and Sying had learned all the rules of even _being_ in class, and the little group was trying hard to get it right. When the kids got going good, and they were in practice mode, they were a little less focused. At least when they had the sticks out.

They were paired off — Krissy with Sying, Chance with Elin, since they were closer in training time that way anyhow. When it was clear that the kids were being careful and not showing off, Logan tossed Scott a pair of sticks too. "Loosen up and hit somethin'," he told him.

Scott smirked as he caught the sticks, though his attention was still on the kids. "Charlie didn't say anything to me or Annie about any little boy bothering her in class," he said with a small frown.

Logan kept his focus on Scott as he corrected Krissy on stepping too close to Sying, then replied to him. "Does that surprise you somehow? She likes to fix her own problems."

Scott almost smirked again. "Yeah. But when Annie finds out…" He trailed off and shook his head, the smirk turning into a grin.

"She's gonna want to go down there," Logan said with a nod. "And you've got Avengers gossip with Cap Monday."

"It's the weekend. Maybe she'll cool off before then," Scott said, unable to stop the crooked smile at the idea.

Logan chuckled at that. "Right. Let me know how that works out for ya. I'd ask K to teach her to rein in her temper, but … come on. Blind leadin' the blind."

Scott shook his head with a little laugh as he turned his attention back to working the sticks with Logan for the moment. He'd deal with Annie when it came up.

So, once karate was over and the kids were ready for dinner and then bed, Scott had his argument worked out — that they couldn't step in every time something happened — after he got Cody to sleep and Annie had fed Chloe and put her down as well. The older kids were allowed to stay up later to read books a little longer, and Scott carefully led out with, "How was your first week of Kindergarten?"

Chance's response was a beaming smile. "Great!" he said, as Charlie shrugged and nodded next to him.

"We're making new friends," she said, then giggled. "Chance plays with all the _girls_ with me!"

"That sounds like a lot of fun," Annie said with a smile as she sat down by Charlie.

"Mmhmm," Charlie agreed.

"We looked for four-leaf clovers today," Chance explained.

"Oh, is that why your knees were so muddy?" Annie teased.

"Yep!" He grinned up at her. "I helped Hannah look _really hard_ , but we didn't find any. We're gonna try again, though."

"Chance has a _girlfriend_ ," Charlie giggled delightedly.

"Nu-uh," Chance said, shaking his head.

"Uh huh, you do," Charlie shot right back. "Her name is Hannah, and she's almost as tall as me, and she has about a bajillion freckles and the _brightest_ red hair!"

Chance grinned. "Her freckles are really cool," he told his parents, who were just shaking their heads at each other. "And she is really nice! She helped Charlie talk to Mrs. King when I gotted in trouble."

Annie's eyebrows shot up, and she looked at Scott over the twin's heads. "What did you get in trouble for, sweetie?"

"Pulling hair," Chance said easily and unconcernedly.

" _Why_ would you — Chance, honey, you can't pull people's hair," Annie said, looking flabbergasted.

"He was pulling Aiden's hair because Aiden pulled on my ponytail," Charlie explained patiently. "Come on, Mom." She wrinkled her nose. "Chance isn't a _bully_."

Annie looked between the two little kids and then to Scott, who just tipped his head their way to tell her to listen to the rest of the story; she was clearly starting to get worked up. "And you got in trouble?"

"For pulling hair," Chance nodded. "Charlie told Mrs. King Aiden started it, and Hannah agreed, and Aiden had to sit in time-out too." He made a face. "He was crying and he got boogers on his sleeve. It was gross."

"He's gross," Charlie agreed with a little nod. "And mean."

"He's not as tough as Charlie," Chance said proudly. "He cried a _lot_ when I pulled his hair, and Charlie never ever cried, even though Aiden pulled her hair lots of times."

Scott caught the expression on Annie's face at that and gently shook his head, but he only got a withering look in return.

But by then, the twins had moved on to talking about how they were _both_ tough, because Chance had chased off the spider and he was learning karate, while Charlie had asked Daisy to teach her how to play piano. Which prompted an energetic discussion of how their respective lessons were going — Charlie could play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" now — until it was clear both of them were wearing down and ready to go to sleep, rubbing their eyes all the way through the _Magic School Bus_ book that Scott read them.

Once the kids were all asleep, Scott wasn't surprised to find Annie sitting under the covers with a look of near murder and her phone in one hand looking up the school's phone number on their website so she could write it down for later.

He let out a breath. "Our kids know how to handle themselves, Annie," he said gently. "We did a good job; you should be proud."

She let out a huff through her nose. "They're _five_. They shouldn't _have_ to."

"We can't go to the school every single time—"

"Oh yes we can." Annie glared at him over her phone. "We absolutely can." When he started to argue, she set down the phone and cut him off with a finger in his face. "I'm going down there to drop them off Monday morning and have a chat with this teacher."

"You just had a baby," he pointed out.

"I feel just fine. I'll have someone else drive," she said, waving him off.

"Are you sure—"

"If it was _me_ teaching in that classroom, I'd want to know my parents were involved," Annie explained, with a bit of heat. "And assuming this woman isn't an idiot, which I'm not sure about yet, let's say she just didn't _see_ this little boy picking on people. I'd want to know if there was a problem. There are a lot of kids, sometimes it happens — but I'd want to _know_."

Scott leaned back, shaking his head at her. "And if she's an idiot?" he almost couldn't help but ask, knowing there was no way to reason with Annie like this — not until after she'd cooled off.

"Then I'll fix that too," Annie said with a huff.

He smiled at her, still shaking his head. "I'll bet you can."

"And don't you forget it, Mr. Summers," she said, crossing her arms over her chest with a decisive little glare.


	3. Nick Fury: Godfather

**Chapter 3: "Nick Fury: Godfather"**

It was incredibly late on Saturday night when Tyler came to wake up Henry to let him know that Tammy was going into labor, so the little group — Henry, Daisy, Tyler, and Tammy — had _not_ been expecting any visitors, especially the closer it got to midnight, and especially considering the fact that Tammy hadn't even started until everyone was asleep and worn out from keeping up with the weekend energy of little kids.

So it was a total surprise when the Barton-Romanoff family arrived — Clint and Natasha and a brand new little boy who couldn't have been more than a few hours old at the most, especially given how exhausted Natasha looked.

Natasha took one look at what was going on and simply climbed into a nearby bed to get comfortable. "Clint, would you take Zoe up to Logan?" she asked. "I'll probably just get a quick nap while we wait."

Clint nodded and gave her a quick kiss as he scooped up the little girl, who was half asleep anyway from the car ride over but trying valiantly not to be because of all the excitement, and carried her upstairs while Hank was busy guiding Tammy through what would be — like the others — a fairly straightforward delivery. Though considering the parents, he was admittedly a little more anxious and excited.

Tyler looked just as nervous, if not more so, and was sitting with his mom the whole time, almost holding his breath until, finally, the very, very bald little boy came into the world.

Hank couldn't stop grinning as he cleaned up the little boy, who was the biggest of all the babies delivered in this particular batch at nearly nine pounds, and he very gently set her down in Tammy's arms as the young woman _beamed_ down at him.

Very few words were spoken between the tired little group. Daisy's eyes were brimming from so much emotion, and Tyler could have been knocked over with a feather by little Tristan Henry McCoy — a name that Henry wrote proudly on his records.

Tyler looked almost nervous when Tammy handed over the little guy for him to hold, considering how big and awkward he had felt when he held Sadie and a few of the other kids when they were this little — and this was _his_ little boy — but as soon as he had a good hold of Tristan, who was sleeping away soundly, he switched from nervous to a huge, beaming smile.

"Oh, he's perfect," Daisy sighed out, breaking the silence at last and finally breaking the spell for Hank — who had until then been beaming down with pride with his chest puffed out.

"Of course he is," Hank said gruffly before he kissed her cheek and made his way over to where Natasha had curled up with her own little boy, tiredly watching the goings on with her eyes half closed. She would absolutely have been asleep if it hadn't been for the fact that the little guy had woken up and was a little fussy at the moment.

Hank shook his head as he looked both mom and baby over for a while before he looked at Natasha over the top of his glasses. "I don't suppose you could have come to me sooner."

"No," she said with a tired sort of smile.

He shook his head at her again as he continued his examination of the little boy with cherub cheeks and a few wisps of red hair. "Of course not."

* * *

Upstairs, Clint had gotten to Logan and K's room, and as soon as Logan answered the door, Zoe leaned away from her father to attach to him, still half asleep, before Clint could explain.

Logan stepped back into the room and very quietly called for K to come over before he turned to Clint again. "What's the story? She alright?"

"Yeah, we're here to get him all checked over … but the lab was a little full when we showed up."

"So it's over already?" Logan said with an eyebrow raised.

"Nat… didn't tell me what was going on until it was pretty much happening," Clint admitted. "I figured she was just being grumpy, so I took Zoe for ice cream and came back to… well… it was pretty much happening right there whether we wanted it to or not."

Logan gave him a look and just shook his head before he dipped down to look Zoe in the face a little better. "You wanna snuggle with Elin or James?"

" _Da_ ," Zoe giggled tiredly.

Logan turned and started to carry her over to the little ones, picking Elin for her since both were still asleep and she'd be more likely to just move over and snuggle in. But K reached out to grab Clint's arm.

"Oh no, wait. I'm going down to see her," she said. "You can only leave if you promise to keep her here until I get back. Otherwise, you need to stay here while Logan goes to see her."

Clint held up both hands. "Trust me; Nat's not going anywhere. She's gotta wait for the blondes to get done with theirs before we can get checked anyway."

K nodded and gave Logan a quick kiss. "I'm sure I won't be _too_ long."

Clint was chuckling as K headed off, then found a seat. "I can play babysitter if you want to head down for a few minutes," he said. "You know Nat'll have your head if you don't meet the little guy."

"She'd like to think so," he rumbled before he headed out.

When Logan got down there, Hank had already checked over both Natasha and her new little guy, and Natasha gave him a tired smile when she saw him and waved him over.

"I think this one favors Clint a little," Natasha said with a smile as she handed him the little boy.

"Not bad, Tash," Logan said as he looked at the little guy a bit closer. "But I still think he's more like you."

She didn't have the energy to argue with him, finally letting herself relax enough to fall asleep — unless that was the meds that Hank had given her. At any rate, she needed to rest. It had been hard work, and she'd even allowed herself to freak out while Clint and Zoe were gone, so she was finally, mercifully _ready_ to rest.

The little boy had fallen asleep soundly in Logan's arms, and he found himself fairly stuck as he watched Natasha sleeping. K was long gone — messenger duty, of course. And Clint was with the kids, who were also all sleeping. So all he had left to do was kill some time.

"Is K still with the other kids?" Daisy asked Logan with a smile when she noticed him standing there.

"No," Logan replied as he glanced up at her. "She went to deliver a message for Tasha. She'll be back soon."

"Then who's with Sadie and the other two?" Tammy asked, picking her head up a bit.

"Clint," Logan replied. "The bigger kids are asleep. Sadie's good for at least another hour."

"Well, you're welcome to join the party," Tyler said with a little grin. "Until she gets back."

"We should really let Clint come down for his little boy," Tammy pointed out. "Maybe Kurt or Leslie Ann or someone can babysit?"

"Someone that super spy Romanoff won't beat down for breathin' on her baby?" Logan asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I meant for the kids upstairs so Clint can be here."

"Clint _is_ one of the kids upstairs," Logan muttered.

"He should still hold his little boy," Tammy argued, adjusting the baby in her own arms as she said it.

"Do a little bit of baby hot potato," Tyler smirked.

"I'll find Storm," Daisy offered, squeezing Tammy's shoulder.

Logan looked up and tried to stop her. "You don't need to wake her up."

Daisy just waved her hand at him. "For two new little ones? I'll get an earful if I don't," she replied, already on her way out the door — and it wasn't ten minutes before Clint came down to join them, all grins and a little bounce in his step.

"How long's this been going on?" Clint asked, thumbing over his shoulder to where Natasha was dead to the world.

"Not too long, so don't do anything stupid to wake her up," Logan told him as he handed Clint his little boy.

"Hey, I know basic survival skills," Clint said with a grin as he tucked in the little guy and dropped into a seat with him.

"Sure you do," Logan grumbled as he took a few steps away from Clint and Natasha. "I'm gonna relieve Storm before she gets an upset baby to deal with."

"Oh, wait a minute," Tammy called out, very nearly stopping him herself. "You haven't even said hi to Tristan while you're here."

"Figured you wanted some time to yourself with him," Logan said, glancing her way.

"He is surprisingly big," she said with a teasing grin Tyler's way.

"Kiddo, the only one surprised by that is you," Logan pointed out.

"Just come over here and meet him, okay?" she laughed.

"Five minutes, and she'll let up, I swear," Tyler said, holding up both hands with a chuckle.

"I hate to upset a new mom," Logan replied with a smirk as he walked over to say hello.

Tammy beamed at that and handed Tristan up to Logan. "There you go," she said decisively. "Now you've held the smallest _and_ the biggest of the group."

Logan frowned her way before he gave the little guy a once over. "Nothin' looks like you but his ears, Ty."

"Yeah, small miracles, huh?" Tyler laughed lightly. "He'll thank his mom for it later."

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Logan replied.

"Hey, I'm not saying he won't get other things from me," Tyler said with an open shrug. "But looks isn't one of 'em, and that's fine with me. That'll help down the line," he added, gesturing at himself with a raised eyebrow look.

"I won't jinx us," Logan said before he took a few steps to sit down. "But you might just screw up that rep for him."

"Might?" Tyler grinned. "I must not be working hard enough."

"Ten times harder to make people remember the good you do. Trust me on that."

"Either way, at least Tris won't be wearing the same face, no matter which rep wins out," Tyler said, leaning over to look at the little guy with a wide and sharp-toothed grin as the bald little baby just _stared_ at Logan.

It wasn't much longer that K came in with a grin, her uniform with a few fresh laser burns. "Message delivered," she said as she headed over to give Logan a kiss and take a peek at the little guy he was holding. "Awww, Tammy, you'd look ridiculous bald."

"He'll grow his hair in," Tammy said, waving her hand.

"I know, but he looks like you … and cute as a cueball."

"I think so," she said with a wide grin as she leaned back. "Nine pounds even, though. I blame Ty."

"Oh, absolutely his fault," K agreed before she gave Tyler a quick hug and a quiet 'congratulations,' then made her way to Clint and the _other_ little blonde baby boy. "I'd say …. ten, fifteen minutes tops? Did you make sure Noh's security is down? Otherwise … add a little more."

"Naw, I wanted him to work for it," Clint said with a crooked grin.

"Oh, good. Then locking him in his office once he saw it was the right move," she said with a nod.

Clint laughed out loud. "I guarantee he broke something down on his way here, then. Door. Hip. It's a tossup."

"His pride," Logan muttered.

Clint chuckled as he handed the little boy to K. "Whatdya think, torture wife?"

"Well, POW Husband … I think he's gorgeous," K replied.

Clint grinned even wider. "Yeah, I tend to agree."

"You're lucky he's got some Natasha in there," K said seriously.

"Yeah, or he'd be hopeless, I know," Clint laughed. "He'll get her smarts."

"Ooh, I hear your song," K said, her head tipped to the side, and moments, later the non-enhanced individuals could clearly hear boots running down the hall.

The doors burst open to a more frazzled Nick Fury than any of them were used to seeing, which was enough to startle Natasha awake. He went straight there — a little slower this time as he straightened and slipped into a more natural walk on his way over.

The only one that was openly entertained was Logan, who started chuckling at the look on Fury's face, though K was grinning at him, especially when Fury shot her a _look_ when he glanced their way.

"I must have just missed you," K said innocently. "I trust you got my message then?"

"Wasn't your message, was it?" Fury said as he sat down next to Natasha, who was grinning wider than the group was used to seeing from her as well.

"Well, not technically," she said, shrugging. "I was just the calligraphist."

Fury shook his head, but he didn't get to offer much more than a dry look before Clint elbowed her. "C'mon. He's gotta meet his godson."

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you think I was taking _your_ cue? No." K gave Natasha a little wink and brought the little guy to Fury. "Try to relax. You don't want to have a stroke while you're holding him." The little one was barely into his arms when K slipped over by Logan, though she didn't take Tristan from him as she leaned her head on his shoulder.

Natasha was nearly laughing as she watched Fury handle the little boy — at first like he didn't know quite what to do and then finally finding a comfortable position for him to lean back. "His name is Nikolas James Romanoff," she supplied for Fury.

Fury's head came up fast enough that she did actually laugh. "What?"

"You heard me," she laughed.

For a moment, it looked like Fury didn't know how to respond, until he let out a chuckle and shook his head. "Your idea, I take it."

"Oh, absolutely," Clint said, leaned back in his seat.

Fury just chuckled again and sat back with the little boy.

"Thank you," Clint whispered to K. "Totally, totally perfect.

"You're very welcome," she said, then turned to Tyler. "Okay. You had your fun. We have our own little one to get back to."

"Tell Sadie hi from us," Tyler agreed with a little nod as Logan tipped the little boy back into his arms. "Thanks for letting us steal you for a while."

* * *

Chance and Charlie were both really enjoying Kindergarten now. Ever since their mom had talked to Mrs. King, and Mrs. King had talked to Aiden and his parents, there was a lot less hair-pulling and pushing all around, which meant they could focus on other things like reading and painting and playing with their new friends.

Chance didn't seem to be bothered in the least by the fact that all his friends in the class were girls, even if a few of the boys in class teased him about it. But he really didn't mind, because his new friends liked Charlie and were nice to her, and that was all that mattered, really.

Well, that and Hannah always let him be the hero and rescue her whenever they played pretend, but that was because she was his _girlfriend_.

Charlie teased him about it a lot — and so did Gina and Lizzie — but Chance didn't really care. Hannah let him hold her hand in the car rider line while they waited for their parents to pick them up, and he let her go on the monkey bars and the swings in front of him.

The trees were just barely starting to change their leaves, so Hannah's little group had gone looking for the best leaves and the prettiest ones. Charlie had found the best one, everybody agreed, because it still had its shape just right without any pieces missing, and it was a pretty orange color that looked like pumpkins.

They put their leaves in their cubbies when they came back from playing outside, and Hannah didn't hold Chance's hand this time because they were holding their leaves in the car rider line and didn't want anyone to step on them.

They made sure to put their leaves in their room when they got home — and to tell Cody not to squish them — before they went off to find their friends to play with them, not at all surprised to find them all in the kitchen helping K.

Sying waved happily at the twins from where he was standing on the counter with both of the elflings, handing K ingredients as she asked for them. Cody and James were working together to set the table for dinner, and Charlie quickly zipped over to help their little brother reach up to the table, since she was the tallest out of all the kids — even taller than Gerry.

So Chance ended up sitting with Elin as they got the lemonade put together, with lots of raspberries. She grinned and him and scooted over so that he could sit by her to help, until Charlie caught sight of them and broke down in giggles.

"Chance is _flirting_ ," she called out in a sing-song, tattle-tale tone.

"Nu-uh!" he called back to her. "I'm making lemonade."

"Uh-huh!" she said, her hands on her hips and one finger out at him to shake it slowly. "You already _got_ a girlfriend!" Chance stuck his tongue out at her, but Charlie just giggled. "Chance likes _Ha-a-a-annah_ ," she sang out.

Chance put his lower lip out in a pout at his sister. "I still wanna play with Elin."

Elin watched the two of them go back and forth for a moment before she grinned at Chance and patted him on the arm. "I still want to play with you," she promised, since he looked distressed that he might not be allowed to anymore, and he grinned and hugged her.

"Good, 'cause you're my bestest friend." He paused. "Except for Gerry, but he doesn't _live_ here."

She giggled and returned the hug before she handed him some more raspberries so they could get back to work. "You're silly."

He nodded fervently. "People say that a _lot_."

"Because you're silly."

"Uh-huh."

Elin just giggled, and the kids set to work making a sticky-fingered masterpiece of the kitchen — as was usual anytime they helped K — until the grownups started to come in from teaching their bigger kid classes and helped everybody get cleaned up.


	4. New Toys

**Chapter 4: "New Toys"**

Rachel had found another three mutant kids on Cerebro just that week, so Scott had decided it would be a good chance for the junior squad to get to work this kind of mission. By all reports, there wasn't going to be any trouble — no mobs or anything like that — so he had even talked to Remy about heading up the mission and bringing Marie with him. If she was going to be helping at the school, it might be good for her to learn as well.

Which was how it happened that Remy was on a flight full of teenage girls and Marie, who seemed to be genuinely excited about the idea of being part of the X-Men, even if it was just a basic mission like this.

Brye and Sylvia had already been on several missions like this before, so they were filling in Jana and Leslie Ann as to how it was going to go — as well as what to do if there _was_ an angry mob… which by the sound of things, they were actually hoping for.

"Now, don'tchu go hopin' for trouble," Remy said, shaking his head at the girls. "Or you gon' find it."

"I hope so," Leslie Ann said, which prompted the girls to break down into giggles.

Marie shook her head lightly and reached over to put her hand on top of Remy's. "Re-mee," she said, and he couldn't help grinning at her whenever she said his name in that beautiful accent of hers. "They are X-Men. Eet ees … oh, 'ow would you say, _faire mon travail_ I think?"

"Sure is, _cher_ ," he said, grinning over at the blonde thief. "But dat don' mean we need trouble, or we gon' miss lil' bitty Baby Stormy's birthday party."

"You spoil her," she laughed lightly.

""Cain't help it," Remy teased her way. "When ol' Remy see a pretty girl…"

"Then 'Ol' Re-mee' cannot help himself," she laughed, giving his hand a little squeeze.

"Specially not wit' a pretty lil' sneak tief," he said, the grin turning somehow even wider as she leaned back and laughed.

Marie turned back to the copilot controls, unable to stop the smile when Remy gently corrected her on something on their approach — more as an excuse to hold her hand.

Finally, the group of them got to Fort Lauderdale, the girls all chatting excitedly as they headed down the streets toward the address Scott had given them.

"What can this kid do, anyway?" Leslie Ann asked, skipping along.

"So far? He just glows blue," Brye said. "That's what Scott said, anyway."

"How blue?" Sophia asked.

"Bright," Brye said. "And I think there are some other physical mutations. Scales too."

Sophia grinned at that. "Scales?"

"Not as pretty as yours, Soph," Brye teased.

"Well, obviously."

Brye grinned as she looped her arm through Sophia's as the group of them made their way down the streets, though they pulled up short of where they were supposed to be when they heard someone shout out to them, "You kids stay off that street. There's an alien loose!"

They stopped to see a few of the neighbors close by — one of whom was in his driveway watching them with a cell phone in hand.

"Ah, not an alien?" Leslie Ann said with a scrunched up nose. "I mean, come on."

"Whatever that thing is, it's not safe," the man insisted.

"No, no, it's fine. We're X-Men," Brye said with a confident little grin that backfired very quickly on her when the man simply responded by very, very loudly shouting for the police.

The girls all glanced at each other and then at Remy, who simply waved them forward at a much quicker pace, with Marie beside him asking in an undertone, "Is this how all your missions go, Re-mee?"

"No, sometimes dey challengin'," he shot back with a smirk as they rushed around the corner to the street to see the official-looking vans lined up outside the house they had been directed to. The kid they'd been sent to retrieve was definitely inside — the blue glow was obvious to see even outside the house.

"Think he's in there?" Jana whispered to Leslie Ann, who smirked as she rolled up her sleeves.

"Oh, maybe," she said. She looked toward the vans, which were marked with MRD insignias. "The MRD isn't even an official anything. My dad says they're just kids playing at being important," she said in a tone that said this was the worst possible thing her dad could say about anyone as she reached out a hand — and the grass in the lawns of several houses crawled over the sidewalk and toward the cars. "So, we get him out and wreck stuff, right?" she asked Remy, poised to flip the cars at a moment's notice.

"Das de plan," he agreed with a nod. "Let's see whatchu got, _petit_."

"Wait," Jana said, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Let's let Mistral check it out first." She nodded toward Mistral, who looked surprised and then smiled. "She can tell us who all's in there. I mean, if that guy's in trouble, we can't flip a car and get him in it worse, right?"

"Eef you prefer, I can simply bring the boy out here," Mistral offered. "Through a window, perhaps."

Jana glanced toward Remy, but when Remy seemed to be waiting to see how she'd run things, she nodded. "Alright. Siren, can you back her up? If things get dicey, you can just tell everyone to chill out."

"Sure thing," Sophia said.

Mistral smiled toward the young woman and then dissolved into a breeze in an instant, blowing past the vans and the MRD agents through a slightly opened window, while Sophia had to sneak toward the house the hard way. Brye was helping — though Sophia didn't realize it — by hitting MRD agents with mosquito attacks to turn their attention from her girlfriend where sneaking alone wouldn't cut it until Sophia got to the window to open it up the rest of the way.

A moment later, Mistral breezed out of the window with a lanky fourteen-year-old over her shoulder, glowing bright blue enough that Sophia had to shield her eyes when she got to them. They could hear the ruckus of the MRD agents inside the house realizing that the quarry was gone, so Sophia stuck her head in the window and sang out at the top of her lungs, _Everyone in this house stay inside and away from any doors and windows!_

Of course, that wasn't much for the MRD agents outside the house, but it took care of anyone that would have followed.

The rest of the team ran to catch up as Leslie Ann provided the perfect distraction for the other half of the MRD — overturning their cars in an explosion of grass and dirt that even shot one of the vans up several feet before it flipped over.

"Can you stop the glow at all?" Jana asked the scaly boy. HIs eyes were mirrored, and the blue glow made it hard to look at him, so no one saw it at first when he shook his head.

"I… I can't," he admitted out loud when he realized no one could look at him.

"Don'tchu worry 'bout it," Remy said as he tossed back one glowing card for the few MRD agents who hadn't been blown off their feet to deal with. "You gon' figure it out. Jus' need a lil' spit an' polish is all."

"Right," the kid said, shaking his head slowly.

"You got a name to go by?" Remy asked, peeking around the corner.

"Uh ... Neil," the boy said uncertainly.

"Dat's a fair stretch better'n 'glowstick'," he replied with a smirk.

Neil immediately made a face. "Oh, please don't call me that."

"Don' you worry none 'bout dat," Remy laughed. "Don't none of my nicknames stick anyhow."

"Yeah, wrong X-Man," Jana said with a little smirk.

"You awful funny, _petit_ ," Remy said, his eyes narrowed as he tried to look severe. "What dey callin' you again? Or do I need to remind him to find one fo' you?"

Jana flushed a brilliant pink. "Well, we're just… going with Scanner… you know…."

"Dat don' sound nuttin' like anytin' he'd ever pick," Remy said, making a face.

"It's … it's my codename," she said.

"So nuttin' _o-fficial_."

Jana flushed even pinker. "Oh, shut up," she grumbled.

" _Oh, petit,_ " Remy said, shaking his head. "Dat is no way to talk to someone dat got hisself a codename of his own."

"I _do_ have a codename!" she insisted.

"Sure you do," he said consolingly.

Neil looked back at the two of them and frowned. "Are all your rescues this talkative because … I've got the neon sign, but it's not like we're being quiet?"

" _Homme_ got hisself a point," Remy called out to Jana. "You bein' too loud."

" _Me_?"

The group of them pulled around a corner, but the truth of it was that as long as Neil was glowing the way he was, the MRD was going to find them wherever they went.

"Come on, bes' tink o' somethin' to get on outta here," Remy said low. "We gon' play hide and seek all day?"

"Very, very bad hide and seek," Brye pointed out, shielding her eyes.

"Sorry," Neil said, looking entirely sheepish. "It… it's been getting brighter all day?"

Leslie Ann frowned. "Well… you've had a pretty tough day," she offered.

"Maybe if he relaxes?" Brye suggested.

"Yeah, that's real likely," Neil muttered, peering around the corner at the approaching MRD agents.

"Again, 'homme got hisself a point'," Jana said with a smirk Remy's way. "Let's just make for the jet, huh?"

"And how we gon' get de time to get in de air with dem followin' us that close?"

"Good point," Jana admitted.

"So, you s'pose t' be so smart," Remy said with a broad smile. "Figger it out."

Jana pulled a face at him, glancing back at her team as Sophia sang the wrong directions to a few people, Brye shot out the tires on an MRD truck, and Leslie Ann's trees grabbed four agents in vines. Mistral was staying close to Neil to breeze out of the way of anyone who got too close to the bright blue neon sign…

"Hey, Siren!" Jana called out, and Sophia looked her way. "Think you can relax Neil?"

"Oh, there are so many ways that can be taken," Brye snickered, and Jana shot her a _look_.

But Sophia just giggled and nodded, turning their way. " _Neil is getting very sleepy!_ " Sophia called out — one of her easiest directions, since she'd learned to do that one ages ago.

Almost immediately, Neil started to slow down and slump sideways — and the glow did significantly decrease, enough that it wasn't visible from blocks away, anyhow. Though as Jana pulled his arm over her shoulder to keep him upright and run with him, she let out a sigh. "Still glowing," she muttered. "We gotta… cover this or something."

"Let Ol' Remy help wit' dat," he said, before he shrugged out of his coat and handed it over.

"Thanks," Jana said, sounding relieved as she pulled the coat around the glowing boy. "Well… we're not advertising our position anymore. But we are slower."

"Perhaps this ees where I can step in?" Mistral offered. "I take him to the jet, and you meet me there, yes?"

"Can you carry him that far when you're … windy?" Jana asked.

She shrugged. "If I am a strong enough wind," she said simply, and when Jana nodded, she scooped up the sleepy Neil and — a moment later — all they saw was a very strong wind carrying him off like a rag doll.

"He's got to be having the weirdest day of his life," Jana muttered to Remy, shaking her head, as they rushed to catch up.

"Ain't nobody get into de X-Men witout startin' wit' the weirdest day of they lives."

Jana smirked at that as they rounded the corner — and then came screeching to a stop when they spotted the MRD vehicles at the end of the street, pulling up with agents leveling weapons at them that Jana hadn't seen before in any of her classes.

"Um. Do you know what those are? They're not in alien tech class or anything," she said as she backpedaled and grabbed Leslie Ann by the arm before her friend could rush into the danger as well, pulling her back as a shot narrowly missed her and Leslie Ann let out a squeak of terror.

"Let's not find out, shall we?" Brye suggested, directing a snake to crawl up the pants leg of one of the agents with a gun — with a high-pitched shriek as her reward.

Sophia nodded her agreement and had just started to sing, " _MRD Agents_ —" when one of them managed to tag her with the new guns, and she let out a cry of surprise. Brye rushed over to her girlfriend, who was holding her arm, but it didn't look like she was bleeding, at least, though the skin was discolored.

Remy lit up a card to throw at the MRD agents, and it blew apart a van, knocking several of the agents out, though it seemed more of them were arriving — probably from the neighbor who had called, not to mention everything else they'd done to draw attention — and several more had those new guns.

But it wasn't immediately apparent what the guns did until Leslie Ann had managed to blow the sidewalk out from underneath five agents at once and was pulling the grass and weeds her way — and then took a shot in the shoulder that not only had her crying out but stopped the movement of the grass altogether.

"They're turning off the powers," Brye said, frustrated as she reached for another arrow to fire at the MRD. She took a hit to the stomach that had her shot going wild, but Remy followed her aim with a glowing card that blew apart one group of MRD agents easily.

"Ain't likely to stop us, _petit_ ," Remy said, his tone rich and reassuring — and marred by the fact that three MRD agents had all taken aim at him at once, and he took all three shots in the chest… and another one in the arm as he stumbled backward from the force of it.

"Yeah, who needs powers anyway?" Jana said with a smirk about a second before she took a shot in the leg and all five of them heard the radio crackle with the report that _all mutants tagged; don't bother with reinforcements._

But if the MRD thought that it was going to be an easy matter of taking them in, that was simply not the case, especially once Remy whipped out his bo staff and had knocked out the radio man a second after he'd said reinforcements were unnecessary.

A few of the MRD agents advanced toward Sophia, who despite being the second-oldest of the group was still the shortest at a few inches shy of five feet. With the powers off, it wasn't like she could just sing them away from her, though the second one of them got close enough, it was apparent she wasn't going to be the easy target they'd thought. One second, one of them was moving in for the grab, and the next, he'd been flipped over her shoulder.

That was the story for all of the junior squad: the agents simply hadn't expected the group of slight, small teenage girls to be that dangerous without their powers. They had concentrated on Remy, who was to their minds the bigger threat and downright deadly with the bo staff, but they hadn't expected Jana to break the wrist of one of the guys who came after her or Leslie Ann to cold cock another one with a wicked right hook and uppercut.

The group didn't have to take down all of the agents, either — just enough to get an opening. And as soon as they did, Jana called it — "Run!" — pulling Leslie Ann by the hand along behind her as they booked it out of the ambush setup at full speed.

All five of them poured on the speed, and Brye fired her one explosive arrow over her shoulder to give them a little more distance.

"I thought you didn't have any specialized ones," Jana panted as she ran.

"I didn't have a _lot_ of specialized ones. That was it," Brye defended.

"Well, maybe you should pack a few extras," Jana said, looking over her shoulder at the smoke. "That's super helpful."

"Well … there's only so much room in the quiver," she said. "Or I would have."

Jana nodded her understanding, though she was still grinning, especially once they got to the jet to rejoin Marie and Neil. "The look on that guy's face when Sophia flipped him…" She giggled as Remy zipped up to the cockpit to get them airborne.

Sophia flushed with pleasure. "More than just a pretty voice," she said softly as Brye tossed her a water bottle from the stash on the plane.

"'Course you are," Brye said, grinning at her friend before she leaned forward into the cockpit. "So - has the senior squad seen those tagging things, or was that new?"

"Dat … was not normal," Remy said in a dark tone.

"What happened?" Marie asked, frowning between them. "What… tagging is she talking about?"

"We got shot," Remy replied in as short a tone as they'd ever heard. "And ain't none of us got use of our powers jes' yet."

Marie's frown deepened, and she looked around the plane at its occupants. "That… is not something I 'ave ever heard of before," she said, putting a hand on Remy's arm. "All of you?"

He simply nodded grimly. "Used ta be dey needed to get close enough to slap on a colla'."

"Or to use a dampener," she said softly, leaning back into the seat as she fell silent.

"Ol' Fearless ain't gon' like dis one bit," Remy promised.

" _I_ don't like it one bit," she said, shaking her head again. "For you, for _la X-Men_ , it ees not so much a problem. But not everyone fights as you, Re-mee, _mon coeur_."

Remy nodded grimly, and the flight back to the mansion was mostly silent. Neil was asleep — and not glowing nearly as much as before — but the girls had sensed the mood of the older mutants and were quiet and contemplative. They were feeling pretty good about getting away from the MRD and fighting powerless, but that didn't mean that they were looking forward to getting back home and getting looked over after those shots.

When they arrived, three X-Men were waiting for them at the hangar. Storm was there to help the now groggy but conscious Neil get acquainted with the school itself; Hank was there to check over those who had been shot; and Scott was there to get the rundown on just what it was that the MRD had in their new arsenal.

"What happened out there?" Scott asked, walking with the group; Hank was already moving them down to his lab so he could get a good look at what they were dealing with.

"The MRD was at the address before we even got there," Jana supplied quickly.

"And dey got some wicked new guns," Remy said with a still-settled frown. "Cain't none of us use our powers since dey hit us wit it."

"Inhibitor _rounds_ ," Scott said with a tone of disbelief.

"We all got hit," Sophia said. "They got Gambit four times. And Brye twice."

"Don't worry," Leslie Ann said brightly. "That's what the self-defense classes are for. We still _totally_ took them down."

"Marie got Neil — that's the blue boy — she got him out of there before they started shooting at us, so they're alright," Jana added helpfully.

"I want everyone to get cleared by Hank before they do anything else," Scott said. "I want those stupid ... things _out_. Now."

Hank was already nodding his fervent agreement, and when they got down to the lab, it was no time at all before all four members of the junior squad and Remy had gone through tests and scans to see just what was _in_ whatever it was that had hit them, though the prognosis Henry came back with had him biting back a small growl.

"Each wound will need minor surgery to address," he explained in a low tone to Scott and Remy after he finished up the last scan. "It seems the 'tagging device' is actually a small network of microfilaments, which bind to the host body. I'll be able to study them better once we get them out, but it won't be a simple matter of just waiting for anything to wear off. No one here will have access to their powers until each filament is removed."

"Perfect," Scott said in a flat tone. "Let me know if you need any help. I'll call up whoever you need."

"Well, since we have Kitty with us still, I'm sure she could assist with the removal," Hank said, then nodded as he thought it over. "And I would like Forge to help me study the filaments themselves and find out if there is anything we can do to combat them other than simply avoiding the shots altogether."

"Yeah, that'll happen," Scott said under his breath as he ran his hand through his hair. "I'll send Forge and Kitty down."

The junior squad nearby was watching the entire interaction, partly because they wanted to know what was in them but partly for the fact that they hadn't seen the older X-Men deal with something like this before. And on seeing Scott look so genuinely mad and upset, Leslie Ann hopped down from where Hank had set her up to scoot over to her uncle and throw her arms around him in a hug.

"Don't worry," she said as she squeezed. "You've got super geniuses on your side. We'll all be _fine_."

He squeezed her right back and gave her a little kiss on the side of her head. "Thanks. I'll send Annie down. I know she's going to want to check on you herself."

Leslie Ann rolled her eyes. "Can't you tell Aunt Annie I'm not _five_ anymore?"

"I can tell her — it won't do you any good, though," he replied with a little smirk. "You got lucky today."

"We knew what we were doing," she assured him. "That's the whole point of training, right? For stuff like this? We totally handled it."

"I know. But," Scott said, drawing in a deep breath. "If this is what the MRD is going to do, _everyone_ is going to need to put extra attention on hand-to-hand." He glanced up at the rest of the group as half of them looked as if that was a death sentence. "Senior squad too," Scott clarified.

"And a little more time at the range," Brye muttered to Sophia with a smirk, and her girlfriend just giggled and nodded.

Still, the mood of the room was relatively somber, with the girls only occasionally breaking into little whispers and giggles instead of the usual whirl of energy — until Kitty and Forge finally arrived to get to work.

It was a really odd sensation, having Shadowcat reach into them to pull out tiny little fibers. But as soon as the fibers were _out_ , each of the affected X-Men could actually feel the difference, starting with a wicked headache as the rush of power came back on and then settled back out again.

Forge was already looking over the first filaments to come out of Leslie Ann — who had gone first because she was the youngest — by the time Hank finished. Hardly any words were spoken between him and Hank, and Jana was sure they hadn't _actually_ discussed it before Hank was already letting the rest of the X-Men know that it was time for a meeting.

* * *

"Good news first," Forge said as he looked around the gathered X-Men in the War Room. "They're not loaded with anything more harmful than an inhibitor." He took a breath and then looked toward Scott. " _Yet._ There is definitely room to make it worse."

"How is that good news?" Bobby asked. "Aside from the fact they haven't perfected it yet."

"Just … that is the good news," Forge replied, using one hand to give the 'simmer down' signal. "The bad news is a little more extensive. There is no internal power source on these little suckers, which means that they are leeching power from the host as soon as they screw their nasty little wires in. So, theoretically, if you have one, it can work indefinitely."

"So this is a step toward permanent depowering," Kurt said with a frown.

"It sure looks like it," Forge replied. "But I'm more worried that this is the first step toward something much worse. If it was a matter of simply depowering — why would they then move to recover?"

"Which is where the 'not yet' part of the 'doesn't have anything but inhibitors' good news comes in," Kate grumbled.

"Well," Forge said, shifting in his seat. "Part of my skillset is that I can see how to make it more efficient. And what the possibilities are, tech-wise. And I can think of at least two or three ways to make this worse off the top of my head."

"Let's go ahead an assume the MRD is already thinking that way," Scott said. "What's the worst-case scenario here?"

"Depending on who they're targeting? I can see migrating devices that go too deep to get out without full anesthesia. Or if they want to get rid of our feral friends, it might be as easy as a poison capsule after the filaments take effect. Or there is room in the capsule for a transmitter." He shrugged. "I wouldn't be surprised if this was about controls."

"So it's the same old song," Kitty said with her arms crossed. "Kill us or make us work for them. They just have better weapons to do it now."

"So what are our options on combating these filaments — aside from stronger armor?" Scott asked.

"Honestly, that's about it. Unless you're going to carry Erik around with you everywhere you go."

"Or Kitty or Lorna," Kate said under her breath.

"Provided that Kitty doesn't get hit," Forge pointed out.

"So, we figure out where they keep their research and trash the place," Logan suggested. "Destroy all their stockpiles, knock off a few intrepid scientists …" He paused and turned to Scott, looking totally relaxed. "We can probably clear 'em out in a day's time."

"You really don't want to do that," said a new voice as very suddenly, Billy Kaplan was sitting in one of the chairs around the table, seated perfectly comfortably as if he'd been there the whole time.

"Sure I do," Logan replied. "Kinda what I'm here for."

"Mmmm no." Billy shook his head lightly. "Those microfilaments aren't an MRD design. They were originally a Weapon X idea — stolen by the MRD, of course."

"Color me not shocked," Logan said dryly.

"If you or K are hit with them, I guarantee it won't be _just_ to turn off your powers," Billy said with his hands folded in front of him. "And trust me, I've seen what four years with those filaments in your body did to both of you. I'd like to avoid the repeat performance." He paused. "And if that's not enough to convince you, I could add that the whole reason I'm here is your decision to move out prompted the future to shift before my very eyes, and I really don't appreciate having to watch devastation in the middle of giving Sammy a bath."

Logan watched him for a few moments, but it was Scott that spoke. "Then we need a better plan. Ideas?"

"Well… Logan's not wrong about needing to clear out the stash and the research," Kate pointed out. "But maybe a few of us without powers could go?"

"And the problem here is that you guys don't kill," Logan pointed out. "You can trash the research, but if the guys that developed it are stickin' around …."

"I'm perfectly fine with sending a few doctors to a neighboring reality," Billy offered. "There are some unresolved issues and a lot of anger that needs to be worked out one world over."

"I could talk to Wade," Kate suggested.

"How the hell is Wade going to be any better if they were looking for healers?" Logan asked.

"Wade can't track," Billy pointed out. "And I don't know if it makes a difference, but they weren't using him in the universe where Weapon X took over."

"Only because they hadn't caught him yet," Logan said low.

Billy turned to face Logan properly. "No…. they wanted me to kill him."

That only had Logan looking more irritated, though. "So the story's always the same. They want an attack dog."

Billy let out a sigh and nodded. "More or less. They're short sighted that way," he told Logan before he turned to Scott. "You're going to want to move on this before next year, when they'd have more government backing," he said. "Which… believe me, is a very horrible future," he added, his eyes swirling a bit brighter before he turned his attention back to the present. "I'm… trying not to interfere too much, but I _can_ tell you it's a bad idea to send in Logan or K. In another timeline, it was me, Erik, Kurt, and Wade, but…" He squinted. "Oh, yeah, no, don't bring Rachel … and Cyclops, you can't go either."

Scott waited, but when it didn't look like Billy had anything else to add, he let out a sigh. "Alright. We'll put together a team. Thank you, Wiccan."

Billy grinned. "Let me know if you need any help," he said before he disappeared with a _pop_.

"I'm still getting used to that," Kate muttered, her chin on Kurt's shoulder as she shook her head.

Kurt nodded lightly but had his focus elsewhere. "Once we find where this research is, where the scientists are, you know I can get in and destroy what needs destroying," he said, seemingly to both Logan and Scott. "And if Wiccan is to be believed, I've done it before," he added with a small smirk.

"Not like you need notes on how to destroy a place like that," Logan said. "Good luck. Whenever you find it."

"Take Kitty with you," Scott suggested. "I don't like the idea of anyone going alone. If you got tagged, even with your bamfs along, it could go south fast."

Kurt grinned Kitty's way. "What do you think, _katzchen_? Shall we destroy a few labs for our holidays?"

"We can wear appropriate costumes," she agreed, nodding.

He grinned at her. "Of course. What fun would it be otherwise?"

"Alright, then Kitty; in the meantime, why don't you start sifting through the MRD's servers. Figure out where they're doing their secret research. They have to have a trail somewhere that'll take us to them. I'll start looking into the blueprints of their buildings. Most of those facilities have a common thread that will make it easier to dig into."

"In the meantime, I'm going to work on ways to keep the filaments from getting through our uniforms," Forge said. "I can't do anything about bare skin, but armor, I can do."

Scott nodded at that. "Alright. Let's get moving."

* * *

In the meantime, the junior squad was still trying to recover from everything that had happened. For the most part, they were pleased with themselves for having gotten out of the scrape without too much trouble, but they were also only too well-aware of how _bad_ that had been.

These new … _things_ … they were bad enough that even the senior squad was off their game. And that more than anything was an indication that they were in for a rough patch.

Not that they couldn't handle it. They'd been through plenty of stupid before.

But still, it had Brye in particular thinking hard. She had been on the team long enough now that she was starting to realize the magic was wearing off… and turning into something a little more like a _job_.

Sure, she loved being an X-Man, and she wouldn't stop anytime soon. But there were only so many times you could get shot at before you started to really think about what was _important_.

And for Brye, at that moment, that meant looking in on Sophia.

Her girlfriend was going for a quick swim, and Brye couldn't help but smile when she saw it. Nothing relaxed Sophia more than spending some time in the water.

So, Brye stripped off her shirt and pants and dove in after her.

She grinned when she heard Sophia's squeal of delight as Brye caught up to her, and for the next little while, the two of them simply swam around, enjoying each other's company and, honestly, enjoying the fact that there wasn't anything _pressing_ for them to do other than go swimming.

When Brye finally got tired (Sophia could have kept going), the two girls headed to shore, and Brye grinned as she grabbed Sophia before she could get her clothes on, pinning her girlfriend to the sand by the lake for a long and involved kiss.

Sophia was grinning by the time the kiss broke, tracing Brye's jaw with her hand. "What was that for? Not that I'm complaining," she amended.

Brye smiled and pulled her into another kiss. "Just thinking about how much I love you."

"Good reason," Sophia agreed, pulling Brye tighter.

Brye was completely ready to get wrapped up in her girlfriend, but she had something she wanted to say first. So she pulled back slightly, smiling at the way the light was dancing off Sophia's scales. "Let's run away together."

Sophia's eyes widened. "What?"

"You and me. It's overdue, don't you think? We should get married."

Sophia stared at Brye for a moment before she broke into a delighted laugh. A moment later, she'd reversed their positions so that she was the one pinning Brye down — and kissing her _hard_. "Yes! Let's!" she said, almost breathlessly. "But let's at least invite the rest of the team, alright?"

"Sure thing, Siren. Whatever you want," Brye said. She didn't really care — she'd gotten her yes. So now, all she wanted to do was get tangled up with Sophia right there in the sand.


	5. Parental Consent

**Chapter 5: "Parental Consent"**

That weekend, Leslie Ann came home from school in a great mood. Most of the drama from earlier in the week had been forgotten by then, replaced with homework and a lot of hanging out with Jana as they watched boys try to flirt and fail so, so epicly.

The only real reminders, for the junior squad anyway, since the senior squad was busily working away on trying to remedy the situation, of what had happened were Neil himself and the fact that everyone had extra self-defense classes, _especially_ the girls who were on the squad.

Neil really wasn't half-bad, even if he had the worst tell in the world when he got nervous and glowed like a neon sign whenever any teacher called on him. He was in Leslie Ann's math class, and she tried to be nice to him when she saw him, since, well, he was her first 'rescue' with the X-Men, which she thought was pretty cool.

The extra self-defense classes were okay. Logan was pretty grumpy lately, so they weren't as fun as usual, but at least she got to have classes with her friends.

So all in all, it had been a pretty good week, and when she got home with a backpack full of homework to a house that smelled like Hale family cooking, she was grinning ear to ear.

Mary Beth rushed over to hug her sister and to tell her the news: she had just done seating placement in her middle school band class and got first chair in the flutes section. Which was definitely worth celebrating. And one of the boys in her band class was cute — also worth celebrating, though Mary Beth was sure to tell her this in hushed tones so Dad wouldn't hear it.

"What about you?" Mary Beth asked after she'd finished nearly bowling her sister over. "How's _your_ school?"

"Really great!" Leslie Ann said, grinning. "Really busy, though," she amended. "Miss Munroe has us writing a paper on _The Great Gatsby,_ and I'm _so_ behind on my reading. And we got a new student this week who glows blue, but he's trying not to be so obnoxious about it, which is nice. I think he's just nervous. He had a rough first week."

"He startin' late, or is this a new student for other reasons?" Anton asked, smirking to himself at her enthusiasm.

"Oh, well, he _was_ going to school down in Florida, but the MRD came after him, so he's going to go to the institute from now on," Leslie Ann explained. "You shoulda seen it, Dad. I've never seen so many people in uniform in one place!"

"In Florida?" Anton asked, his smirk dropping.

She nodded happily. "The junior squad got to go with Gambit and Mistral — that's Gambit's girlfriend. We were just going to learn how to do the 'surprise! You're a mutant!' speech, since X-Men do that a lot when kids get their powers, you know? But the MRD beat us there, and we totally kicked their butts," she said, still grinning as she shoveled corn onto her plate.

"That is so cool," Mary Beth said admiringly as both Rachel and Anton shared a look of concern over the dinner table.

Leslie Ann nodded. "It was scarier than I thought it would be," she admitted. "But it _was_ pretty cool when I flipped a truck over backwards." She glanced at her dad. "Don't worry. It was an MRD truck full of bad guys."

"I'm not … entirely sure the law would agree with you on that, sweetpea."

Leslie Ann scrunched up her nose. "Well, considering they were shooting at us, _I'd_ say it was self-defense, _Dad_."

"They were what?" Rachel asked, looking totally gobsmacked.

"Yeah, the MRD has these new things that shoot microfilaments to turn off your powers," Leslie Ann explained. "Uncle Scott's trying to figure out how to get rid of them." She paused. "I mean, they're not in me _now_. I just mean for future stuff," she added quickly, as if _that_ was going to alleviate her parents' concerns.

"You… you had microfilaments…. When did you have microfilaments _inside you_?" Rachel asked, leaning back fully in her chair with a look of sheer disbelief.

"On Tuesday," Leslie Ann said with a shrug. "Shadowcat pulled them out and let me look at them. They're actually pretty cool-looking — if they weren't totally evil."

"Did you get a picture?" Mary Beth asked.

Leslie Ann smacked her hand to her forehead. "I _should've_ ," she said. "I _so_ should've."

Mary Beth looked insanely jealous. "I want to be an X-Man," she told her parents, both of whom were still in states like shock.

Anton seemed to shake off the stunned silence first and turned to Rachel. "Rach…"

"Keys are on the counter."

He nodded at her and was already on his feet. "I'll be back," he told the girls, grabbing his keys from the counter on the way out and making a beeline straight for the mansion — with the intent to talk to his brother-in-law about letting his baby girl get _shot_.

* * *

As the car in the driveway in Westchester rolled to a stop, Logan stood up from where he was working on his motorcycle to catch Anton, since anyone could see the man was looking to start something. "Didn't think you'd be away from the girls today," Logan called out, getting between Anton and the front door. "You alright?"

"Alright?" Anton repeated, looking incredulous. "My baby girl gets shot and I don't hear about it until just now, and I'm s'pposed to be _alright_?"

"You wanna take it out on someone, I'm right here," Logan said, holding both arms out. "Go for it. You won't feel any better, especially after you break your hand — but go for it."

"Ain't pissed at you — unless you were there too," Anton said, cutting Logan a sharp glare.

"Nope," Logan replied. "But I trained the girls to fight, if you want things to bitch about. Either way, you're not gonna go after Scott unless you get through me."

"He's the one sendin' out a teenager to—"

"Standard run for the junior team," Logan said, cutting across him. "Senior member was assigned to go along, and they ran into unforeseen circumstances."

"Unforeseen circumstances my left shoelace."

"Thought you'd like that one," Logan replied, smirking. "There was no way that those kids would've been sent in if we'd known the MRD was gonna be there — especially armed like they were."

"That's another thing. What's this about a new microfilament?"

"Right now it acts like a dampener. Kills the power," Logan said frankly. "Not somethin' we made, just somethin' we're gonna have to stop." He paused and fixed Anton with a serious look. "And nothin' Scott or anyone else here knew a thing about before the girls got back."

"It's news to me too," Anton said, pacing a small path, though he did look a little more relaxed when he heard _how_ new. "I've worked with MRD before. And I've never heard anything even close to that."

"They'd call it an inhibitor round — or somethin' close to it," Logan said. "Only way to remedy it is to remove it. Anyone outside of these walls would need general surgery. But Kitty … had a shortcut that was painless."

Anton's face twisted into a scowl as he thought of it. "I've _worked_ with these people," he repeated under his breath like a curse.

"Gives ya tha warm fuzzies, don't it."

"They weren't a picnic at the best of times, believe me," Anton said, still scowling. "I know they were working on ways to make inhibitors and dampening fields more effective, but this?"

Logan shrugged. "Next up'll probably be permanent ID and camps. That's how it rolls, last I checked."

Anton stopped dead in his pacing. "You really think it's approaching that point?" he asked. "After everything else — the tracking bill and the freakin' Avengers coming out on your behalf…" He shook his head. "I know you guys took a hit when Magneto was hitting those international sites after those guys took his granddaughter, but … you really think so?"

"Can you see any other path for this to end up going down?" Logan asked. "It's not like they've ever hidden the fact that it's their ultimate ideal."

"I don't want Leslie Ann to have to face that," Anton said.

"Yeah, it's no fun," Logan agreed.

But Anton shook his head. "I shouldn't have agreed to let her join the team. She's putting herself out there way too much."

Logan tipped his head to the side. "Are you surprised?"

"That a Hale girl is rushin' right into danger? No," Anton said. "But I thought that junior squad dealt with less potent threats."

"They do," he said, nodding his head. "This was supposed to be a simple pick-up mission. Go save the kitten in the tree kinda thing."

"Instead, my daughter gets shot."

"Not like she's the first X-Man to get shot at," Logan pointed out. "They like to blare it across the news when it happens, too."

Anton nodded. "I heard there was some dustup, but …" He paused and smirked. "No one really pays attention to Florida."

"If it was the senior team, they'd have had our faces," Logan pointed out. "Regardless of where we were. And the response team would've been a helluva lot bigger than the girls described."

"So you're sayin' it can get worse — and it will the older she gets."

"I've had _beer runs_ go worse'n that," Logan replied dryly.

Anton let out all his breath in annoyance and hit his fist against the wall. "They were shootin' at my _baby girl_ , Wolverine. And as far as I know, no one's gonna get prosecuted for it."

"MRD don't care how old they are," Logan replied. "They've killed unarmed, harmless, untrained kids for less. I know that doesn't help you, but your girl followed her training, handed them their backsides, even _without_ her powers, and came out with nothin' more than a dust up. _And_ she managed to save the kitten."

"Of course she did," Anton said almost automatically, proud despite himself. "But that really doesn't help, to be honest."

"Offer still stands if you wanna hit someone. I'll even give you a freebie to make it more fair."

Anton waved his hand. "There's a shootin' range half of us on the force use to blow off steam. I may go there."

"You should shoot with K," he offered. "She's got a thing for explosive targets an she's a helluva lot more fun than your cop buddies."

Anton chuckled despite himself. "Yeah, but that sounds like something I'd want to stick around for longer than I should."

"So come back during the week," Logan suggested.

"I may just," Anton said. He shook his head and shook out the hand he'd pounded the wall with, finally starting to calm down, though he still wasn't happy in the least. "You just take care of my baby girl, wouldja?"

Logan nodded. "If I'd have been there, whoever shot her would be dead. Not even gonna sugarcoat it."

"You remember I'm a cop, right?" Anton said.

"Yep," Logan said, nodding and holding his gaze. "But seein' as I wasn't there … I'm not worried."

Anton shook his head at that, running a hand over his face. "Well, officially, I feel like I should remind you not to murder people. Unofficially, if they touch my baby girl again…"

"You'll hear about it on the news."

He smirked. "I'll see you around, Wolverine," he said, headed for his car. "And tell Scott — next time he forgets to tell me my daughter's been shot, I'll send _my wife_ and have her team up with his."

"It might be better if I tell Annie he needs to revamp his protocols," Logan replied. "Keep in mind: we're not used to parents who give a damn about their kids. It's a learning curve."

"Learn faster."

"Old dogs," Logan said with a tight smile.

"Old excuse," Anton shot back, shaking his head.

"You need anything else? Last shot to break your hand."

"No thanks. Some of us work for a living," Anton couldn't resist teasing as he got in the car.

"Be a good way for you to get a few weeks off," Logan pointed out. "Might even score some points with your boss if you say how it happened and who ya broke it on."

Anton made a noise of disgust in the back of his throat. "No thanks. I'm comfortable being' the mutie-loving cop on the force; don't wanna break the streak." He shot Logan a little smirk before he drove off, still shaking his head to himself.

He was about halfway home when he realized he still hadn't talked to Scott, and Logan's promise to talk to Annie aside, he _did_ need to chat with his brother-in-law. He hit the number for Scott's phone, still shaking his head to himself over the whole affair, and was surprised to hear Scott almost hesitant when he picked up on the other end with: "Anton. I've been meaning to call."

If he'd still been as pissed as he was earlier, Anton would have said something like "no kidding," but he almost had to laugh as it was. "Yeah, if I have to hear about a mission gone wrong from my own kid before you again, you're not gettin' off the hook so easy, you hear?"

"I've been running down a way to keep the MRD from hitting anyone else with this new weapon, but I should have called to let you know what was going on," Scott said, sounding halfway suspicious of Anton's easy response.

"I really don't want to know about that part of it, Scott. I'm still not solid on the legality of it all," Anton admitted. "But the part where my baby girl got shot—"

"She shouldn't have been in harm's way. There was nothing to say this was going to go the way it did," Scott said quickly.

"Yeah, I got the rundown at the mansion," Anton said. "You've got a real good friend, talked me down from ripping your head off."

There was a pause. "Who was that?"

"Wolverine," Anton said, and when there was an even longer pause, Anton had to wonder if they'd been disconnected. "Scott?"

"Yeah, alright," came the response. "You'll get a call next time we run into any trouble, I promise."

"Might want to make it a habit. I can't possibly be the only parent who cares if their kids gets shot."

"So far?"

"See, I just don't believe that," Anton said. "Gotta be an error in your sampling. You just get the ones who need the help is all."

"That's possible," Scott allowed, then let out a breath. "Leslie Ann is an amazing part of the junior squad. You should come and see a training session sometime. I think you'd be proud."

"Maybe I will," Anton said before he broke into a huge grin and couldn't help but step into the protective father shoes once more. "Is this new kid Neil on the team?"

"No," Scott said. "He doesn't want to be on the team, and he can't control his powers yet."

"Well, keep an eye on him. You know my baby girl's not fifteen yet, and the way things work at that school of yours…"

"She's a good kid, Anton. She'll be fine."

"Yeah, I know," Anton said as he turned into his neighborhood. "I'll see you next weekend."

* * *

Ever since what had happened, the kids at the school — particularly the ones that hadn't been on the junior squad — has been abuzz with rumors about what the MRD was _really_ after.

One girl in particular, Gabriella, who was one of the telepaths, insisted that she'd overheard some of the senior squad's thoughts on the matter and that there was more going on than the adults would say.

"I'm telling you," Gabriella said one day after class, "these guys… I'm talking pure evil. Like… trying to force everyone into slavery kind of evil."

"We can handle it," Leslie Ann insisted. Even if she was the youngest on the team, she wanted to make that clear — and stand up for the rest of the X-Men, too.

Gabriella shook her head. "But what if you can't?" she asked.

Leslie Ann frowned at that — especially because Gabriella honestly seemed _scared_. She was trying to cover up for it by bragging about what she knew, but…

Leslie Ann let her shoulders drop and then rushed over to Gabriella to wrap her up in a hug. "We got this. I promise."

For just a second, Gabriella put up a half-hearted struggle… and then she simply gave up and let Leslie Ann hug her.

And Leslie Ann was glad she did. This was part of why she'd joined the X-Men, after all. She wanted to help people. And that wasn't always about tossing cars and stuff like that. Sometimes, it was about being there to help a scared girl.


	6. Staging for Something Worse

**MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter and a few later ones in this volume deal with genocide, concentration camps, and the other evils of racism/extremism. Proceed with caution. We try to treat these issues respectfully and carefully, but the warning is here.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: "Staging for Something Worse"**

Aside from the muffled _bamf_ sound of Kurt teleporting, it was a still, quiet night outside the ranch in Montana that was sitting on top of a workshop belowground.

Logan had already told them how to get to the workshop through the ranch, and with Kitty pulling them through all the right doors, the two X-Men had no trouble at all getting down to the lower levels, where it was clear even this late at night that the scientists involved in creating the filaments were hard at work.

Kitty stuck her head through and looked around quickly before pulling back and looking to Kurt. "There's six scientists and maybe three agents. It was hard to tell if the lump of clothes on the far back bench is a person or not from where we are," she told him, and he nodded, already unsheathing his swords as she put a hand on his arm and stepped a few feet sideways so she would pull them through at a better vantage point.

The second Kitty let go of Kurt, he was in motion, handling the MRD agents — there _were_ in fact three of them — while Kitty focused her attention on phasing through the important-looking equipment with an 'oops' that no one thought she meant for a second.

She was just about to put her arm through one of the machines coding the filament production line when there was a poof of blue, and she found herself on the other side of the room with a little blue imp grinning at her.

"Bamf," the little guy said, gesturing to where she'd just been; she saw one of the scientists had his sights aimed on where she had just been standing with the new gun.

"Thanks," she breathed out, ruffling the little guy's hair, and he giggled, latching onto her shoulder with gleeful little cackles as she went on with her destruction — and three of his buddies teleported to the scientist to steal the gun and jam it into a still-running machine to see how badly destroyed it could get before the machine stopped — which was pretty badly destroyed, apparently.

Kurt had headed in to where Logan had said the information would be kept — servers, mainframes, files, and even the long yellow notebooks they used for notation. He wasted no time diving into pure destruction — with a little fire and smashing some things that looked important — after he'd removed the parts that Forge said would be holding all of the most important research. Because Forge wanted to see how far they'd come too.

He had just finished slicing through the neck of an overhanging device that was fine-tuning the filaments when a chorus of loud, angry, growl-laced chattering caught his attention, and he turned just in time to see one of his bamfs picking himself back up after taking one of the filament-laced hits in the chest. Every single one of his brothers was in _fits_ , porting quickly enough that they were hardly visible above the smoke and chattering insults that had Kurt shaking his head at their creativity as they tore the MRD agent — and his gun — to _shreds_.

To Kurt's surprise, though, the little imp who had been hit shook off the initial shock and seemed to jump right in to help, teleporting without any problems at all as the bamfs moved on from the agent to simply wrecking things. One of them had managed to get hold of a grenade — and Kurt had the presence of mind to teleport himself and Kitty out of there only a moment before it went off.

He shook his head at his little friends. "A warning, next time," he said, though they just shrugged and hopped right back into their gleeful destruction.

Kurt went back to his work, keeping an eye out for the intel that Forge wanted, getting distracted by the papers he was sifting through. Enough so that he didn't notice the man sneaking up on him with his gun raised. He heard a little noise and turned his head to listen, but when he saw a flash of movement, he turned — and ended up getting a round in the chest that, had it been a regular bullet instead of one of their microfilament rounds, would have left him in substantially worse shape.

He glanced down for just a moment before the papers in his hands were crumpled in his fists. Kurt glared up at the man holding the gun — and though he couldn't teleport, the soldier facing him couldn't have sworn that wasn't the case as Kurt rushed him, all three swords drawn in a flash as he attacked.

The man crumpled in a heap, two swords through his chest that Kurt pulled free a moment later, still glaring as a few of the other reinforcements seemed to take a step back — for all the good it did them before they too found themselves on the wrong end of Kurt's swords.

Between the raging demons, the furious Kurt, and Kitty's ongoing phase-destruction, it was no time after that before what was left of the workshop was only a few sparking pieces of equipment. The scientists were all dead — the lucky ones on the end of Kurt's blades and the unlucky ones at the mercy of the bamfs — as were the MRD agents. And for a moment, a strange silence rang out.

Across the way, Kurt looked over to see that his little demons were gleefully lighting fires — and tearing down the fire suppression systems overhead. "I think we're done for now," Kurt said in a heavy rasp, though now that the worst of it was over, he had to rub one hand across his chest. The round that close to bone _hurt._

"You alright, Kurt?" Kitty asked as she and the bamf who'd stuck with her picked their way over. The bamf looked slightly singed, but Kitty, of course, had not a mark on her.

"Just sore, I think," Kurt replied, though he looked equal parts irritated and sheepish. "I didn't notice him."

"Well, lucky for you, they didn't get me," Kitty said, making a show of rolling up her sleeves.

"If it's all the same, I think I'd rather let Hank look at it first. In case the wires went deeper than I think."

Kitty poked out her lower lip but nodded. "Alright, but the offer still stands," she said.

"I'm sure I'll take you up on it as soon as Hank looks at an X-ray."

Kitty grinned at him, then at the little bamfs. "So, how come it didn't affect the little rage balls?"

"They're demons, not mutants," Kurt replied as if there was any other answer.

"Yeah, I know, but you gotta know they had something in there... I mean, it's not like they like aliens or any other powered people either. Sure, they _hate_ us, but…" Kitty shrugged. "I'm just saying. Dampeners work on non-mutants too, even if this is more of an inhibitor."

"Then this must be different than a dampener," Kurt replied. "We can ask Forge about it later."

"Right. Now's the time to vamoose before the little demons set us all on fire," Kitty agreed, seizing hold of his arm so she could take them both up and out before the bamfs could burn the place down.

It took the bamfs a little longer to catch up to them, and a few of them were smoking, but they were all grinning, giggling and jabbering away in their little language.

Kitty had to laugh when she saw one of the little guys had used the excuse of the fire to light up a cigar, and she was pretty sure it was Logan's. "Where did you get that?" she asked the little guy.

The imp just grinned up at her widely and teleported up to where she was to ruffle her hair with a 'bamf' that sounded halfway like a reassurance before he took a deep puff and broke into little giggles.

"Let's just get home," Kurt said with a little grimace.

"Sorry — distracted by your little demon arsonists," Kitty said as she slid into the pilot's seat. "I think they feel better now."

The bamfs were still jabbering away for most of the flight back to the mansion, still a little angry about the fact that one of their own had been shot — not to mention their big blue brother, who was more affected by it than they were. But, yes, they were feeling better — especially if "murderous" counted as "better."

Once they arrived at the mansion, the pair of X-Men went first to where Forge and Scott were waiting to drop off the intel that they had gathered — before the bamfs, not willing to wait a second longer when their big brother was powerless, teleported them both down to Hank as soon as they were done there.

Hank took a few minutes to get Kurt settled in first — and quickly ruled out any further penetration than his breastbone — but one of the filaments had managed to anchor into that.

The bamf however... "There is no sign of anything even remotely like the microfilaments," Hank declared as the little guy sheepishly giggled and chattered away.

Kurt raised an eyebrow at the little guy. "Apparently, the filaments… burned," he said, pausing to check with the little guy, who nodded and rubbed his chest with a frustrated growl. It hadn't felt good, clearly, even if the filaments were gone.

"Little demons," Kitty said, shaking her head.

"However, Kurt," Hank said, gesturing toward him with one hand, "could use a little hand."

Kurt looked over at her with a crooked grin. "Please?"

Kitty matched his grin as she skipped over. "Toldja I've got your back," she said as she phased her hand into his chest and, a moment later, pulled out several wriggling, tiny filaments. She made a face. "This … they look so gross."

"They don't feel too good either," Kurt said as he got to his feet. "At any rate, they won't be making any more of them, at least."

"Yeah," Kitty agreed with a nod and a slight bounce, though her tone was entirely serious as she added, "Now we just have to find the rest of them."

* * *

Forge was more than happy to get the hard drives from Kurt and barely looked their way as he dove into the schematics and blueprints, completely immersed in what he was seeing. "I'll let you know if I find any of the warehouse locations in here," Forge promised. "You stopped them from continuing their research, but you know there are plenty out there already.

"I'd like to know if they were able to specialize — and where those went, if we can find it," Scott said, looking through the papers as well. "I'm sure plenty went to New York, but if they're sending heavy-duty stuff someplace in particular, they might know something we don't know."

So the two of them dove into it, sifting through intel and schematics alike, with the occasional help from an X-Man or two who had the time to give — or who had been sent by either Annie or Storm with food and water.

That was the case with Jana, who didn't know how to say 'no' to Annie and had ended up bringing lunch to the room where all the intel was… and then got pulled in by her interest in what Forge was reading. She was, after all, the top of her tech class — after the technopaths.

She read over Forge's shoulder for a few minutes before he set it aside, and she tentatively pulled up a seat to pull a few papers that it didn't look like anyone had touched yet over her way, scrunching up her nose when she discovered how _difficult_ it was to read some of the handwriting.

"Does this…. Does this say _Dakota_?" she finally had to ask, sliding a paper toward Forge.

He did a little double-take, then leaned closer to the paper. "Sure looks like it."

"Right, well, _N. Dakota_ is written on a lot of these shipments. I can't read the rest of the address, but…" Jana squinted at it. "That seems weird, right? I mean, who lives in North Dakota?"

"Mostly tribal land," Forge replied. "And what's not tribal is government."

"So, not like, a huge mutant problem, right? Because I'm only five pages in, and it seems like North Dakota has more of these guns than New York does, and that's just weird."

Forge didn't wait to be asked before he handed that particular stack of papers to Scott, who peered at the address Jana had pointed out and seemed to settle almost immediately into a glare. "They're staging for something," he said, looking through the papers for a more legible address. It took him ten pages before he got coordinates, and that was all he needed to make the decision and go to the comm — for an all-hands-on-deck alert.

It took hardly any time for the X-Men to get to the War Room — though Scott was surprised to see that Logan and K weren't there. "What's the hold up?" he asked them on his comm as the others got seated. When there was no answer, he let out a sigh of annoyance, rolled his eyes, and turned back to the group at large.

"The MRD has been shipping their new weapon to the middle of North Dakota. The address we've got is isolated, close to the border, and could very likely be a false one. But it's big enough that this has to be a staging point for something significant, and whatever it is, I don't want them to finish it," he told the group. "They'll have plenty of those guns with them, so I want the whole team on this. Whatever they're staging, we need to stop it — and any microfilament rounds or weapons you can destroy in the meantime would go a long way toward depleting their remaining stash."

"So, go in, smash the place up, take all their new toys," Kate summed up. "Sounds straightforward enough."

Scott nodded. "So gear up. We're leaving as soon as we've got everyone on board."

While most of the X-Men were headed to get ready, though, Scott headed upstairs to Logan and K's room and knocked two times fast before he opened the door anyway.

"You okay, Slim?" Logan asked — with Sadie asleep on his shoulder.

"I should ask you the same thing. I said all hands on deck," Scott said, leaning on the doorframe with his arms crossed.

"Figured that meant all hands that weren't a massive liability."

"If I meant that, I'd say it," Scott said. "I said all hands — and you're coming with anyway. Forge looked through the schematics. They don't have the control Billy saw. At worst, they had a few that could tranquilize their targets, but they didn't have control." He paused when Logan frowned his way and added, "Pretty sure with you two lying low, it wasn't a priority. At least, that's how I understand the intel Kurt came back with. Unless you think I'm wrong," he added with a little glare.

Logan gave him a dry look. "Just a matter of time."

Scott rolled his eyes. "I said all hands, Logan. The MRD is staging in North Dakota, and we're headed there now. Annie's already volunteered to watch the kids."

"Staging for what?" he asked. "And that's a _lot_ of babies."

"The junior squad is helping, and the rest of the Hale group will be here by the time we leave," Scott said, waving one hand. "And we don't know what they're staging, to be honest. It's not finished yet — and it's going to stay that way."

Logan and K shared a look that didn't betray what they were thinking in the least before he finally nodded once. "Fine. We'll be right down."

"Good." Scott pushed off from the doorway and headed down to get changed himself and then get to the blackbird.

The two little ferals didn't take much time, though Anton got a little laugh out of taking Sadie from Logan on his way down. They took their seats — furthest back as always — and with that, the X-Men headed to North Dakota.

They were still a ways out when the great, black walls of whatever the MRD had been working on were visible from the air, and it looked like construction was more or less finished on what looked like from above a large facility — with high walls and turrets.

"Yeah, that can't be good," Bobby muttered, leaning forward to get a better view as Scott took them in.

"No kidding," Scott said dryly.

They hadn't even touched down before the blackbird was fired on — so by the time Scott did get them on the ground, the MRD agents involved in the project were already rushing to meet the X-Men, new guns in hand as well as old-fashioned bullets from the moment they got within range.

Not that it was going to do them much good. Storm had already whipped up hurricane-force winds to drive back the agents and tear their weapons from them, and Mistral followed her lead with a wind of her own, knocking into MRD agents and jostling guns away from them.

Logan and K hit the ground running, claws out and making a beeline for the front line of soldiers, dodging and weaving through those that were still standing after Storm's winds not only blasted many off their feet but also managed to propel the two ferals at them faster.

It was clear pretty quickly that it had been a while since they'd been out to play, though instead of being rusty, the two of them were just wickedly fast and out to clear out as many as possible, and Kate had to smirk when she overheard them muttering their headcount to each other — comparing hits as they worked off each other.

In the meantime, Scott had asked Rachel to help him get to the facility itself, intending to tear it down and leave it in ashes if he could. It was much easier to get there when Rachel was simply pushing back the MRD agents who got close enough to try and stop the two of them, though when she paused long enough to read one agent's mind, she stopped in midair and let out a noise that was pained — enough that Scott spun to see if she was alright.

"Rachel?"

She put a hand to her head and shook it hard, though when she looked his way again, it was clear she was _furious_. "It's a _camp_ ," she said with fire laced in her words.

Scott's eyes went wide for just a second before he saw a tinge of red in his vision and quickly clamped it down with his jaw. "It's not going to be anything for much longer," he muttered through his teeth as he turned toward the nearest black wall and, rather than heading for an entrance, just started to carve his way through it.

A few of the other X-Men saw the red and made their way over — so that while Scott was fully occupied with carving into the place, he didn't have to worry about the MRD when the rest of the X-Men had the agents well in hand.

Still, the new weapons that the MRD had seemed to give them a little more confidence than usual, especially after they were able to get a shot on Mistral as she reformed to catch her breath, unable to stay in wind form any longer — though all that got them was two very ticked off thieves as the offending agent was blown to pieces in a pink-tinged explosion.

"You alright, _cher_?" Remy called Marie's way — though it was clearly unnecessary, as a moment later, they could hear the arc of electricity before the man she'd just tasered slid to his knees in front of her.

"I am fine, Re-mee. It ees just my pride," she replied, stepping around the man as, with a twirl of both of their coats, Remy spun his staff over her head to knock out an approaching agent as she ducked just in time with him.

Meanwhile, Kurt had found his way inside and radioed back that he'd found the stash of weaponry. "And I'm very happy to report that it all seems … _incredibly flammable._ " The bamfs could be heard clearly through the radio cackling and giggling as they lit their fires, though one guard had gotten caught up with the little demons, and he was screaming for mercy and praying as fast as he was able.

"You little imp, causing arson without me," Kate accused him as she shot two explosives at once to crash down a door and provide another way into the facility that wouldn't get in the way of the red-tinged blasting zone on the other end of the compound for those that didn't have little imps.

"It's not me, _Vögelchen_ ," he sang back. "You know I can't control the demons."

"Oh, sure, when it's something worth controlling them, they're civilized enough for _your_ needs," Kate teased back, shaking her head as she strung another arrow, only to be surprised when an agent appeared around a nearby corner and shot her in the back.

She spun around, eyes narrowed until she spotted the offending agent and then shot two arrows into him, outright sprinting his way. " _That is not gonna help you,"_ she promised in a terrifying near-whisper through her teeth as she swung the bow and knocked him hard enough in the head that he crumpled. "I'm. Not. A. Mutant. What is _wrong_ with you."

Bobby and Rachel had made an impressively scary team, though it wasn't anything that could have been predicted. Bobby, of course, was icing up everything in front of him — and Rachel was taking advantage. Any machinery that looked like it might get into his path, she made sure to get close enough to to take advantage of a little Phoenix fire, super heating it before the ice came through. Simple science was causing much of what they found to simply shatter in the thermal swing between the two — and when nothing was available, she'd simply superheat some ice, steaming out any soldiers too close.

Bobby grinned up at her as an impressive pile of weapons shattered with their combined forces. "I've told you how cool that is, right?"

"You could stand to mention it more often."

"Well, it's pretty darn cool," Bobby said a second before he pulled on her hand to spin her into a kiss quickly — before they went back to the destruction they were wreaking on the whole place.

* * *

Meanwhile, Logan had come around the corner of the decimated buildings to find Scott standing in what was left of a room — if the four-walled pattern of rubble was any indication — and still blasting away, turning even the rubble into vapor and dust as he worked.

Logan watched him for a few moments, slowly coming to a stop as he did so before he called out to him in an even tone. "They weren't holding anyone here. Pretty sure you can stop."

It took a second, but Scott put a hand to his pocket and pulled out his visor before he turned Logan's way. "Do you know what this was?" he asked in a barely-controlled tone.

Logan looked to the size and shape of what was left and then around at the remains of the structures. "Looks like a concentration camp to me." He pointed to the remains behind Scott. "That where they were gonna dispose of 'em?"

Scott nodded, his hands in fists at his sides. "Everything here was built. Operational. They were ready to move."

"And it was a helluva lot more efficient looking than the ones I got to see," Logan said with a nod. "You killed it. Congratulations."

"This isn't funny, Logan," Scott said, still in that barely-controlled tone.

"Not tryin' to be funny," Logan replied. "I hate these places. They always put 'em in some God-forsaken spot and don't bother even hiding what they're doing."

"I thought we were _past_ this," Scott spit out at last, gesturing toward the rubble. "Everything we've done — for _decades_ — and we're still _here_."

"Scott," Logan said, pausing and shaking his head. "All it takes is one narrow-minded, insecure sack of crap that can't take responsibility for who _he is_ to end up here. I thought you knew your history."

"I just want to know what made them think they were safe from legal repercussions if they were comfortable enough to build this — what they know that we don't know," Scott said through gritted teeth.

Logan let out a breath. "I'm sure we'll find out sooner than later. But we're on government land. Military-controlled. So we might want to get the hell outta here before the whole of the US military gets their panties in a twist."

Scott swore under his breath. "Dammit, Logan, if it wasn't for…" He shook his head. "I almost want to let them come. Hold them accountable."

"No one knows we're here, and you know damn well if we got caught up here, there isn't anyone that wouldn't count it as a win." He gestured to the rubble. "Come on, Slim. Only reason I got out of the last one was the healing. We don't need this crap right now."

Scott finally turned Logan's way in surprise more than frustration. "I thought you liberated the camps, not…"

"I ended the war in Japan," Logan replied. "I started out in Europe. Canada was in it a couple years before the States."

"There's nothing in your file or anywhere in public record," Scott said.

"That's because you're looking under the wrong name," Logan replied. "And I don't know that it'd be in any record, seeing as I spent most of that time driving the commanders crazy. You know. Since I wouldn't stay dead."

Scott almost smirked at the idea as he shook his head and dropped his shoulders slightly. "Yeah, I imagine that was an issue," he said before he turned to his comm to quickly give the order to move out, walking with Logan back toward the blackbird. "Does Erik know?" he asked after a long moment.

Logan shook his head. "Never came up in conversation. And it was different camps anyhow."

Scott fell silent again as he thought it over and then shook his head. "If Hank hadn't benched him for his health... "

"He'd have had a stroke today," Logan finished.

"Or he'd be fifty miles down the road looking for the next governmental target," Scott said.

"Well he's not, and neither are you."

"If this had been ten years ago, I would be," Scott said, shaking his head. "And you know it."

"Good thing this didn't happen ten years ago then," Logan replied flatly.

"Good thing Annie's around, is what it is," Scott muttered under his breath.

"Yeah, no kiddin'," Logan said almost as low. "Her just breathing probably saved the entire species."

Scott shook his head and let out all his breath. "Rachel was looking for any plans to do this elsewhere, but I'll start keeping an eye on supplies…"

"Scotty, for as few mutants as there are, one of these would be more'n enough," Logan replied. "Not saying you're wrong to keep an eye out, but I don't think there would be more than a couple."

"There's more of us now than there were before," Scott pointed out.

"You didn't see how fast they could work through people," Logan said. "And this … is a _lot_ more efficient-lookin'."

"I shouldn't have reduced it to rubble before we could document it. Get proof. Evidence. Pictures…"

"Well, too late now," Logan said. "But if they were plannin' more than one, you'll find it. And if they weren't, they'll rebuild."

"And we'll tear it down again," Scott said.

"After pictures next time, of course," Logan replied, eyes forward as they headed to the jet.

"Shut up, Logan."


	7. One Pissed-Off Star-Spangled Man

**Chapter 7: "One Pissed-Off Star-Spangled Man With Some Opinions and Anger In Him"**

Word had gotten around the school pretty quickly once the telepaths caught on to what had happened with the senior X-Men's mission to North Dakota.

The whole idea was met with a general sense of terror and dread, whispered between kids in the hallways as very suddenly the prospect of going home for the holidays, or of going outside the school, was that much more daunting — and it was only a few weeks out from Thanksgiving.

It didn't help that the rumor mill was working overtime, so that by the time the weekend hit, a few weeks after the fact, and Leslie Ann was headed home for a dinner with her whole family — Scott and his family included — she had heard every kind of embellishment and worst-case scenario. That they'd had to go after some X-Men who were captured, that the camp was already imprisoning people, that there was another one right there in New York… Gabriella in particular seemed to be convinced that they were all going to _die,_ no matter what Leslie Ann said to try to reassure her.

There wasn't a whisper of it on the news, though — and Leslie Ann had checked. Not… that she expected there would be. She did pay attention in class, and she did know enough to realize that this kind of stuff just didn't _get_ talked about. But her dad had always told her to expect the best of people, so she did.

So when there was no report on the destroyed camp, she clung to the optimistic hope that it was just because there was a new president to focus on instead, and all the news that came from the election results, the new leadership transition, all that.

She'd meant to ask her uncle about it, but she wasn't sure how to start that conversation. _Hey, Uncle Scott, is it true we're all going to die?_ just wasn't really something she could wrap her head around. And besides, she definitely couldn't bring it up _now_ , when she was getting a ride from the school to her parents' house with her little cousins in the backseat going on and on about how there was a new boy in their class and how Charlie _li-i-i-i-i-iked_ him.

"And he has a cool part in the side of his hair that goes kind of zig zag," Chance was saying. "I can't get my hair to do that because my hair isn't short."

Charlie reached over and shoved her brother in the shoulder. "Sto-o-o-op."

"And — _and_ he let Charlie have the Snickers from his Halloween candy, and everyone knows those are the best ones."

"I don't know," Leslie Ann said with a teasing smile. "What about Reese's?"

"Charlie doesn't _like_ peanut butter," Chance said as if this was obvious. "She gives _Julian_ all her Reese's."

Charlie wrinkled up her nose at Chance. "Cuz it's _fair_ ," she said reasonably. "I get my favorite, and he gets his favorite."

"It's 'cause you _like_ him!"

"Stop! No it's not!"

"Uh-huh!" Chance grinned delightedly. "You want to give him _cupcake kisses_."

"Cha-a-a-a-ance!" Charlie wailed, covering her face with both hands.

Cody was giggling the entire time he watched his older siblings go back and forth, completely delighted with the whole thing. "You like him!" he sang out to Charlie, siding with his brother, which finally seemed to be the last straw for the little girl.

" _Mom!_ "

"Boys, quit picking on your sister," Annie said without even looking back.

"It's not picking if it's the truth!" Chance argued, though that got Annie to turn around and give him an incredibly withering look for sassing back, and he very quickly gulped and looked down at his hands. "Yes, ma'am."

Cody covered his mouth, still giggling, "You gotted in trouble."

"So did _you_."

"You gotted in _trouble._ "

Chance stuck his tongue out at his brother as they finally pulled into the Wrights' driveway, and the three Summers kids who weren't dead to the world asleep in the baby car seat (luckily Chloe had slept through the whole fight) tumbled out of the car en masse, escaping from Annie so they could pick up their relentless teasing as both boys chased after Charlie — and Scott had to get after all of them before it could turn into a real fight.

Leslie Ann stayed behind to help her Aunt Annie get the baby all settled in, holding her bag full of baby things as Chloe finally started to wake up.

"Sorry about the chaos," Annie said with a tired grin.

"No, it's fine," Leslie Ann assured her. "I like getting to be with my cousins. They're fun."

Annie smiled at that as the two of them got in to see that Anton and Rachel very nearly had dinner all set out, and Mary Beth was just so excited to see her big sister and tell her all about her week at school — so for most of the dinner, the conversation was dominated by the Kindergarten teasing of the Summers twins and just general catching up as both kids and adults chatted long after dinner was over.

Chloe was asleep, and Cody had passed out on the couch. Mary Beth was playing a highly competitive game of Sorry with the twins… and Leslie Ann ended up drifting toward the adults as they were discussing, for the moment, the new president and how likeable he was. Her dad hadn't voted for him, but he did like his stance on police and security, and they were discussing the state of affairs when Leslie Ann sat down nearby, feeling a little out of place since she didn't quite fit with the adults but she didn't want to play with the little kids either.

The conversation on security had turned to one where Anton and Scott were comparing their jobs again, trading stories since the last time they'd met up — this _always_ happened and was actually Leslie Ann's favorite part, so she wound up sitting closer as her mom and aunt smiled and made room for her.

Scott was just saying that his most recent project had him spending more time in information gathering than anything else when Leslie Ann didn't even think, just blurted out, "Is that so you can make sure they don't build another camp?"

The entire group of adults paused, and Leslie Ann flushed pink as she realized she had their full attention. "Where did you hear that?" Scott asked at last.

 _I should've known Gabriella was full of it,_ she thought, sure that she had over-exaggerated as she pulled on her ponytail. "Everyone at school is talking about it," she said quietly. "Someone said they were building one in New York City, but we'd know about it, right?"

"No one is building a camp in New York City," Scott assured her.

"But what about the other one?" she asked, a little emboldened now. "I heard there were already people there — and someone said Miss Marie got captured, but I don't think that's true."

"We've always watched out for things like that, and there are no camps with anyone being held," Scott replied. "And right now, I don't think there are any standing."

"So I can tell Gabriella to chill out and stop spreading rumors?" Leslie Ann asked with a half a smile.

"Where did Gabriella hear something like that anyhow?" Scott asked.

"From someone on the senior team thinking about it too much."

"That … I'd like to know what's been passed around," Scott replied. "Since the rumors are getting much bigger than they should."

"Well, like I said, someone said there was a camp in New York, which I said was just _wrong_ , but Miss Marie _did_ have to go see Hank for those microfilament things, and someone said she got captured, and someone else said there were, like, a hundred people there…"

Scott shook his head and turned to Annie. "I think we're going to need to address the school first thing on Monday. Better to get the truth out there than to let them have their imaginations go wild."

"And what exactly _is_ the truth?" Rachel asked, one eyebrow raised.

"That there was a fully operational — _empty_ — camp that was levelled," Scott replied, making sure to emphasize the good rather than the bad, especially considering how clear Anton had been about wanting the parents to have a say in what was going on. "No one was there but guards."

"Where?" Anton asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Near the Canadian border in North Dakota. Several hundred miles from anything."

Anton's eyes narrowed even further, and Leslie Ann thought her dad might go for a drive for as mad as he looked. "Why doesn't anyone know about this?" he asked at last.

Scott very nearly let out a laugh. "Honestly? The media has never given us a fair shake. We could save the world on camera and they'd twist it to say we brought hell down on everyone. They don't want anyone knowing it was there — or to have to explain what it was built for. Not until they have more support."

"They can't think…" Rachel looked between the adults at the table with wide eyes, looking toward Leslie Ann in particular before she looked _mad_. "This kind of thing doesn't … well, it's not supposed to happen anymore!"

"Who was running it?" Anton cut in as Rachel seemed to flail for words.

"Government property. Military instalment not too far off," Scott replied. "It's official."

Anton swore under his breath and shook his head. "Scott, this is one of those things you call me on."

"If SHIELD won't do anything about it, I'm not sure what one state cop can do. No offense," Scott pointed out.

"None taken. I'm not telling you as a cop; I'm saying as a father, you _call me_ and you tell me what kind of _crap_ my daughter is facing," Anton said in a low and dangerous tone.

"We're not entirely sure yet," Scott said, trying to level with him. "We know what it looks like, and one of ours has confirmed those suspicions based on personal experience in the past, but … we have no proof. Yet. Unfortunately, some of us were a little … overzealous when we saw it for what it was." He wasn't going to tell Anton that he was the one being overzealous, especially not with his brother-in-law in the state of agitation Scott was seeing.

Anton shook his head in pure disbelief. "You'd think someone would have blown the whistle…" he muttered before he pushed back from the table and got to his feet, starting to clear away the dishes. "Just tell me you're going to keep tearing them down as fast as they can build 'em."

"That's the plan," Scott said.

"For now, anyway," Anton said, still looked completely ticked off before he made a visible effort to try not to look so upset when the kids were just one room over. "And Leslie Ann is _off_ any missions related to this."

"All the junior team is benched," Scott agreed.

"Good. They don't need to be dealing with that," Anton said. "I'd say no one should, but even I'm not that optimistic."

"If we don't go out, it'll just go forward," Scott said.

"I know, and that's what pisses me off about it," Anton said, still scowling. "You watch your back, Scott. This ain't a game any of us can afford to lose."

* * *

For the last few months or so, the rotation between the Avengers and X-Men had been put on a temporary hold simply because there had been so many pregnancies and newborns to deal with that the focus was on their own families and teammates for most of the late summer into the fall.

But it was slowly picking back up again, and Kate had signed herself up for one of the first rotations back so that she could go see her friends before December hit, with her anniversary, Christmas, and birthday a little more important, to her mind, than proving to Clint that she could still totally keep up with him even after being out of the game for a while with Elfling Number Three.

And seeing as Kaleb wasn't even three months yet, Kate had decided to just go ahead and bring him along. Not just because he was still so little but because the Avengers always loved getting to see the littlest ones, no matter which team they came from, and it was just so _fun_ watching Thor with any of the kids, not to mention Steve, who was getting pretty good at playing with the kids after that initial awkwardness when his friends and teammates had first started having them.

She wasn't disappointed, either. Kaleb took an instant liking to Thor, totally enraptured by the huge Asgardian. Thor even got a gummy smile for his efforts holding and playing with the little boy, and Kate just had to lean back and watch the show, totally tickled.

"Gee, I hope you weren't planning on bringing your kid _back_ home with you," Teddy teased as he and Billy sat down on either side of her to join her.

"As long as he's giving Thor the 'this is so cool' face, we're good," Kate laughed. "He's been like that since he was born — just wants to see _everything_."

"Genetics," Teddy teased.

Kate rolled her eyes at that and bumped her friend's shoulder with hers. "And how are Sammy and Harry doing?"

"Talking a lot more," Billy said, a proud little smile creasing his features. "It took them a while, and then it just came in a _flood_."

"Now we can't get them to _stop_ ," Teddy agreed with a little laugh.

"And you're sure you didn't magic them?" Kate teased Billy. "Because that sure sounds like you."

"If I'd magicked them, one would be blonde," Billy pointed out. "Or both. Since I'm partial to blondes," he added, grinning Teddy's way.

Kate rolled her eyes at her friend, and the three former Young Avengers fell silent for a while, just enjoying each other's company as well as Thor's laughter as Kaleb kept grinning at him.

"I've been meaning to ask you something, Billy," Kate said after a moment, and Billy seemed to straighten up. "You came in to stop a few people on the team from going after those filaments… but what did you see?"

"A whole lot of crap, Kate. You really don't want to know," Billy said with a deep frown. "Why?"

"Well, I'm just wondering if you saw the camp we found in North Dakota."

Teddy looked toward Billy, who seemed to take a long time to think over his answer. "Yes, I did," he said finally, slowly. "But… the one I saw was operational before you found it. If you'd pushed the MRD, they would have moved up their timeline and started sending mutants there, in addition to sending Logan and K to Canada when they caught them."

"But you knew they were making one," Kate said, her eyes narrowed.

Billy let out a sigh and nodded.

"Why didn't you _tell_ us?" she asked, totally exasperated as she hit him, hard, in the chest.

Billy rubbed the spot where she'd hit him. "Kate, I literally can't warn you about every single bad thing that you're going to run into. For one thing, I'd only have enough time to do that for everyone if I bent the rules of time, and I'm not going to do that."

"But you can tell us about futzing _camps_ , Billy! That's something you can tell us about!"

Billy bit his lip. "Kate... right now, everyone in the X-Men is working overtime to keep anything like that from ever being _used_. If you hadn't found it, would you be working that hard?"

Kate glared at him.

"If I'd told you what they were building, you'd just go and destroy it, and they'd be in the process of rebuilding it right now, and covering their tracks a little better. Now, you have an established pattern, you know what to look for, and you wrecked a _fully operational_ camp that they spent billions of dollars putting together. That's a much bigger hit to their program than if I'd told you about it on my own."

"I think I liked you better when you weren't all-knowing," Kate grumbled, her arms crossed over her chest.

"I'm… it doesn't really work like that," Billy said. "If I was going to predict every bad thing, I'd never be able to live in the present with Teddy and my kids. And the future is literally always changing." He looked honestly apologetic. "I can't tell how bad things are going to get. I know there's a rough patch ahead, but until the pieces all fall in place, I don't know… there's four or five different ways the future could go _just right now_. It's only when it's something major, like the filaments that would weaponize mutants for the wrong team, or pushing the MRD into using camps before you can destroy them — then it gets bad enough I can't ignore it." He gestured to his eyes. "I'm still learning the rules here, Kate, and I'd much rather err on the side of caution then screw up reality here. I condemned an entire world to Weapon X rule for four years just by being in the wrong place. I'm not doing it again. So unless the future is _screaming_ at me, what do you want me to do?"

"Just… promise me you'll tell us if they get one of those camps operational. _Before_ they start shipping people off."

"Yeah, I promise," Billy said.

"You cut it close with the one in North Dakota," Kate said with a glare, and Billy raised both hands in a gesture of defense.

"You guys had it covered."

"What are you guys talking about?" Steve asked suddenly, looking both shocked and stern all at once. Every muscle in his body was tense as he stood there, staring at the group — who hadn't even known he was eavesdropping until that very moment.

The three former teammates startled slightly, especially on seeing how Steve looked, and Kate swallowed before she waved him over. "Right. I guess you wouldn't have heard about North Dakota, since we've been a little isolated dealing with family stuff and all this… crap."

"What happened in North Dakota?"

"We found a fully-operational — but empty — honest-to-god concentration camp," Kate told him frankly, the tone in her voice unmistakable as she glared at the memory. "Government land, too. Military-owned. Just sitting there waiting to be used — and chock full of weapons to neutralize mutant powers."

"That … that's not supposed to happen here," Steve said, sounding outraged already.

"Well, it did happen, and we levelled it," Kate said, matching his tone. "And _nobody_ knew about it. We only knew because we were tracking the MRD's new anti-mutant weapons. Actually, our _junior squad_ found that out, too, the hard way. We got really lucky."

"Wait … they shot one of _the teenagers?_ "

"Four. Four teenagers," Kate corrected him. "That's how we got on the scent. They hit our entire junior squad with microfilaments that act as inhibitors under your skin. You can only get them out with surgery — or Shadowcat."

Steve stood there for a moment just … mentally sputtering. He opened his mouth a couple of times — only to close it again before he finally turned on his heel and marched right out, muttering about better lines of communication between the two teams.

It wasn't a long flight in a Quinjet to Washington, and obviously, when he had called to say he wanted to speak to the outgoing president, the press secretary had jumped at the opportunity for a photo op later, especially with the incoming new guy in town getting his own briefings to prepare for the new administration.

The way the press secretary had fallen over himself to set up the meeting, though, just meant that Steve didn't have long to wait — so he was still freshly angry when he got there.

"Captain Rogers!" the president called out with a beaming smile, looking up from whatever he was reading at his desk to cross the room to shake his hand — though he stopped short when he saw the look on Steve's face. "What can I do for you?" he asked, this time more seriously.

"You can tell me what the hell is going on," Steve replied, obviously too irritated to keep _all_ of his professional tone. "There was a detainment camp? On American soil? _Why?_ "

"There hasn't been anything like that since the internment camps of your era, as far as I'm aware," the president said with a frown.

"The problem here is that my source doesn't make things like this up," Steve said. "And I have a hard time believing that something that big would have happened without your knowing it."

Again, the president shook his head. "I can ask the Pentagon, talk to my generals. If you can give me a location, that might help, but I'm telling you, I haven't heard of anything like this."

"Sir, it's my sincere hope that for something like this? I wouldn't need to give you a location. Because if there are more than one of these … _things_... then there is going to be big trouble on the horizon. And not just from the mutant citizens of this country."

"That wasn't my intention," the president said quickly. "I just meant that I don't know of anything like that in existence, but I can check military locations in an area. If they've been repurposed without my knowledge, I'd like to know just as much as you would." He looked entirely serious. "You have to know I would _never_ sign my name to any kind of… _detainment camp_ ," he said, clearly disdainful of the idea.

"I hope that's true, Mr. President," Steve said in his most serious tone. "I'll be looking into it personally."

"So will I," the president assured him.

At that, Steve nodded and offered him his hand. "Thank you for seeing me on such short notice."

"Always a pleasure to help Captain America," the president said with a wan smile as he took Steve's hand and frowned slightly at the grip. "I promise you: I'll get to the bottom of this before I hand the keys to the White House to the next guy. I'll clean out the entire Situation Room and Joint Chiefs if I have to."

It wasn't exactly the best note to leave on, especially as Steve was sure that the president was lying as he left the Oval Office, though he didn't get far at all before a new voice called out from the Roosevelt Room — "Captain Rogers. Leaving already?" — and he turned to see the new president-elect, Josh Bradley, poking his head out.

"Pressing matters to attend to," Steve replied, though he stopped and took a moment to offer the new president-elect his hand. "Congratulations."

Bradley grinned widely. "Thanks. It was a close run," he said, then gestured around the room. "And very humbling. Just being here, just visiting…" He shook his head. "I'm sorry to hear you're leaving. I had hoped to get to talk with you, but of course, more pressing matters..."

"I'd be happy to take a moment if there's something on your mind," Steve said, hoping to strike a clean chord with the incoming leader.

"Just the state of things generally — it's a little overwhelming," Bradley admitted, stepping back from the doorway so Steve could come in. "I could sit in this room for the next three years and still not feel prepared for the magnitude of it — and of course, half of it they don't tell you until you're elected. I think it's entrapment, Captain, it really is."

"I'm sure you'll adjust your stance on that with a little time," Steve said with a little smirk. "No job ever tells you the dark side of it upfront."

"Well, that's exactly it, isn't it? There are so many dark corners in this job… do you know, I'm just finding out, for example, how the old administration handled that fiasco a few years back with the tracking bill? Outrageous treatment of its own citizens…" He shook his head. "Of course, I can't say as much on the campaign trail. Optics, you know, especially over the summer with those international incidents with the X-Men, but I was always taught that government should _help_ people."

"Those international incidents were all related to an organization spanning several countries operating with no oversight and refusing to follow the laws of any given country," Steve said. "As far as I'm concerned, they weren't so much incidents as they were human rights battles."

Bradley nodded along to Steve's assessment. "That isn't something I can do much to stop, unfortunately," he admitted. "Even as president, I can't barge into other countries, you know."

"So I understand."

"But — and be honest with me — as an Avenger, you've played with the optics... Well, you'll pardon me for being a bit political, that _is_ the game here — but you've had mutants on your team. And you've worked with the X-Men. How badly do you think I would take a hit if I were to order a task force in my first one hundred days to look specifically into mutant problems?" Bradley asked. "Give these people a place to voice their concern — so they _don't_ have to go gallivanting around fighting on their own?"

"I think you'd have to be very careful on how that would be handled," Steve replied. "Too many politicians have gone too far. Which is how we ended up with problems like Magneto."

"So, you think it's a bad idea," Bradley said, his shoulders deflating obviously. "I know it's a risk… hot button topics always are, especially treading new ground…"

"It's always a risk, particularly when the people pushing laws and groups like that don't know what it's like to _be_ in that group."

Bradley seemed to consider this for a long time. "If it's an executive task force, they can't do a damn thing about it on the Hill," he decided with a little nod. "And really, I ran a platform of peace. Hard to do that if I don't give these people someplace to speak up."

Steve took a breath and held it for a moment as he watched the man carefully. "I'm sure you're going to pay more attention to your advisors, sir, but you might want to let democracy handle things without avoiding the Hill."

"The same people who were ready to pass that sad excuse for a bill on mutant tracking four years ago?" Bradley said, the tone of distaste clear.

"Many of those were replaced with new representatives," Steve replied.

Bradley nodded. "True," he had to agree. "Still, you can understand why I'd be wary. It wasn't too long ago you were fighting registration yourself, Captain Rogers."

"You asked my opinion and I'm giving it." Steve crossed his arms, a little wary of getting into an argument about this, especially because something was starting to _smell_ in this town. More than usual.

Bradley shook his head. "Well. I'll talk with my advisors. But I do appreciate your candor; don't get me wrong. It's refreshing." He grinned and stuck his hand out for Steve to shake. "I hope I can look forward to working with you and the Avengers after I'm sworn in. Politics aside, I did mean what I said about wanting to do right by the country and keep them safe. Couldn't do that without you."

Steve shook the man's hand with a tight smile before he wished him a good day and headed out. He'd had enough of politicians for a lifetime.


	8. Take a Breath

**Chapter 8: "Take a Breath"**

To everyone's relief, the holiday season hit, and it honestly seemed like with it came a breath of air. The MRD was backing off, at least for the moment, and even the more minor problems like Kate and Clint's annual holiday trashing of the tracksuits seemed to go perfect fine.

Though for the youngest in the mansion, none of that was really a concern at all as Christmas got closer, and, as usual, the Summers twins were the first ones up.

And, also as usual, Chance went straight to the Howletts' door, his carefully-wrapped box behind his back for Elin as he giggled and bounced on his toes waiting for someone to notice his knocking.

It was Logan that opened the door and just looked down at him for a moment. "You lost?" he asked.

Chance burst into giggles. "Nooo. It's Christmas! So I brought Elin's present!" he said, pulling out the box from behind his back that contained the macaroni picture frame he had spent _hours_ on, as well as the handwritten Christmas card.

"I _guess_ you can come in then," Logan said, frowning lightly at the little guy because he knew the kid would get more enthusiastic if he did.

Chance beamed up at him as he bounced his way in. "Merry Christmas, Logan!" he sang out, sure to hug Logan once he was inside before he made a beeline for Elin. "Merry Christmas, Elin!"

She had just gotten her hair put into braids when he came in, so she hopped off of the chair and made her way over to wrap him up in a quick hug. " _God Jul,_ " she replied with a little smirk.

"I brought a present," he said, holding out the little box for her. "I wrapped it myself, 'cause it's for you."

She smiled at him and turned and made her way over to her bed the next room over, where she had a basket full of paper hearts filled with candy. Although the rest of them were all the same, she'd been sure to get Chance only his favorites.

Chance beamed at Elin and wrapped her in a hug, holding the paper heart tight in one hand as he looked over at Logan and K expectantly. "You coming? Everybody's opening presents downstairs, but I had to get my _best friend in the whole world_ first before anybody else," he said, bouncing slightly and holding Elin's hand.

"You wanna help her carry her basket down?" Logan asked.

Chance nodded, then glanced at Elin. "Do you need help? Cuz I can help."

She grinned at him and nodded her head, because even though she really didn't need the help, she knew he loved to do it.

Once they got downstairs, the paper hearts were of course a hit, as were the Christmas sweets and candies that the kids got in their stockings. Krissy was already wearing her new mittens and refused to take them off, which was taking longer with unwrapping, but she didn't seem to mind in the least. And Sying had a music player all of his own, looking a lot like his father with one ear bud in as he bounced around humming along to the songs under his breath.

In fact, the sweet little half-Kree came bounding over to where Marie and Remy were by the fire to very shyly offer Marie some of his Christmas candy.

" _Merci_ ," Marie said with a smile as she took the candy and gave Sying a little hug, and the little boy turned bright pink and scampered off to go play with his sisters as soon as she released him.

"Jubilee and Noh gon' be in trubble wit dat one," Remy muttered, shaking his head as he leaned forward to kiss Marie. "He trouble already."

"You are just jealous you did not think to give me chocolates this morning."

He grinned at her and shook his head. "You de one wearin' de dress," he teased her right back.

"It ees a nice dress," she argued.

"And a nice coat too, _cher_."

"It _ees_ chilly outside." She tipped her head back to smile at him. "And it looks so much better on me, Re-mee."

"You look good in anytin'."

She shook her head at him, leaning back on his chest as they watched the sugar-filled kids with their new Christmas toys tumble through the living room. Their parents had a hard time keeping up with all the excitement as it spilled into the kitchen for more sweets, but Remy and Marie were just fine sitting there in the living room by the fire for a (relatively) quiet Christmas afternoon.

They had been perfectly content to just listen to some of the Christmas music playing and quietly chat, considering a few different places they could go next summer when the school year was through — when the mob of kids went past again, this time following Logan and K elsewhere to watch movies so that Annie could have the kitchen to herself for dinner.

"Dere dey go," Remy chuckled as the kids filed past, and Marie shook her head with a light laugh, resting her head on his chest as they stretched out together.

"She has changed him zat much?" Marie asked with a raised eyebrow.

Remy laughed. "No, _cher_ , he always been like dat. Jus' a lil' more obvious wit so many of de shorter crowd in de mansion lately." He leaned toward her with a sparkle in his eyes. "Cain't hide it, him. Not no more."

"No," she had to agree with a little laugh, "no, he cannot."

"Still, it nice to see," Remy said, absently playing with her hair. "Weren't too long ago and nobody on de team even tinkin' 'bout bein' safe 'nuff to have dey families. Which a real shame, seein' as ol' Fearless ain't been dis relaxed since ol' Remy met him." He paused. "Well… we still got problems. But it still true."

Marie laughed at that. "There are always problems — _c'est la vie_. But for that, we have wine for relaxing, _non_?" When he grinned at that, she tipped her head back to kiss him. "I will find the right year," she promised, dissolving into a breeze that swept past him and through his hair and clothes for an instant before he was left grinning and leaning back in the couch. He loved when she did that.

He wasn't alone for long though, as Storm found her way over to take a seat nearby — though not the spot Marie had vacated. "She brings out the best in you," she said with a sly smile.

"You seein' tings, Stormy," Remy said with a little huff of breath as he waved her off. "Ol' Remy de same as he always been."

"I may be a thief, but I am no liar," Storm replied. "And I know what I'm seeing. The question is: do you?"

"Well dat depend on whatchu seein', Stormy," Remy said. He leaned his head back. "She beautiful, _non_?"

"I think she's more than that," Storm said, trouble in her gaze. "And you are trying to side-step me."

"You ask what Remy see, and he see a beautiful sneak tief," Remy said with a shrug.

"If that's all she is then," Ororo said with a shrug.

Remy sat up a little straighter to look at her properly. "Whatchu gettin' at, Stormy?"

"It doesn't matter," she replied, shaking her head. "Not if all you can see is a beautiful sneak thief. Perhaps I was wrong."

"Now who side-steppin' who?" Remy laughed. "You goin' in circles."

"Which is what you do to keep from scaring off a friend when they are obviously much happier than they realize."

Remy tipped his head at her for a moment and then couldn't help but laugh as he leaned back. "You cain't scare me, Stormy," he teased. "I know how happy I am, me. Plenty goin' right for ol' Remy. Kinda nice for a change, ain't it?"

"It is indeed," she agreed with a little smirk. "Merry Christmas, my old friend."

" _Joyeux Noël_ , Stormy."

* * *

After the holiday break, it was back to school for everyone — teachers, students, and the kids that were old enough to go. Which meant that Chance and Charlie were back in Kindergarten with Mrs. King and all their friends.

It had been fun spending Christmas with their family, but both of the twins were also happy to see their friends again, and they spent their whole recess with their little group catching each other up on all their adventures.

They were making a little snowman as they talked, rolling up the big ball for the bottom with both Chance and Charlie pushing because it was the biggest, when one of the second-graders came over to steal the snowman for himself and his friend.

Of course, his big mistake was thinking that he could steal the snowman by pushing Charlie into the snow hard enough that her hat fell off her head — and he simply didn't have any warning at all before Chance had popped him in the mouth, standing in front of his sister looking as downright murderous as it was possible for a six-year-old to look.

"Don't touch my sister," Chance said, his chin thrust out as he glared up at the older boy.

The girls had already scattered, and Charlie's friend Julian stopped to help her up — only for the second-grader's friend to sneer and shove both of them back while Charlie was still getting up. "Eat snow!" the little boy sneered.

That was simply too much for Chance, who turned to give the second little boy a piece of his mind — only for the first boy to grab a handful of Chance's shirt and pull him backward into a punch that knocked Chance back hard enough that he fell on his back.

For just a second, Chance looked totally shocked — and then he pounced, slamming into the older boy to take him to the ground, where a quick and incredibly one-sided wrestling match followed, ending with Chance on top, holding the older boy down in a pin as he shouted at the top of his lungs, "If you touch my sister again, I'll punch your lights out!"

The shocked elementary school teachers rushed to pull the boys apart, even though by that point, Chance had clearly already won and made his point quite eloquently. The second-grade boy was whimpering as Chance held him down, and his friend looked completely wide-eyed, shocked that a Kindergartener could take him down.

This time, it didn't matter that Charlie — and Julian — insisted that Chance was standing up for his sister. The truth of the matter was that the teachers had to pull him off of the second-grader, and he had been fighting. All three boys were sent to the principal's office, and their parents were called.

Scott was the one to go down to the school, since Annie was busy with little Chloe, who had a cold and had been absolutely miserable all day. He canceled the tactics class for the day — and smirked when the kids celebrated the newfound free time — and drove down to see what the problem was this time, sure it was another instance of Chance trying to play hero.

So when he got to the school to find a very defiant Chance with his chin jutted out at an older boy and his mother, Scott just had to shake his head as he sat down and the principal explained that the two boys had been fighting during recess.

Scott didn't have to ask who the winner of the fight had been, since the older boy had a black eye and was scowling, while Chance just looked defiant and only had a few scratches from rolling on the ground. He scrubbed a hand over his face as the principal explained that, when the teachers had arrived, Chance was holding the older boy down.

"You understand, Mr. Summers, that we have a strict policy against fighting on school grounds," the principal said, and Scott nodded, one hand on Chance's shoulders.

"Do you know what started the fight?" he asked.

"We just wanted to build a snowman," the other boy grumbled, but Chance glared at him hard.

" _We_ were building a snowman. _You_ shoved my _sister_ ," he said in a low tone.

The two boys sniped at each other for a moment longer before the principal stepped in again, shaking his head. "The teachers and the other students did see Charlie being pushed down," he said, and the older boy glowered, sinking further into his seat. "But that doesn't excuse fighting."

"Why don't you start from the beginning," Scott said, "instead of jumping backward one step at a time."

"There wasn't much to it, honestly. Jack and one of his friends approached Chance's group, and according to Mrs. King, he shoved Charlie, at which point Chance stepped in. Jack hit Chance while his friend was shoving Charlie, and then Chance and Jack got into a wrestling match."

"And I won," Chance said under his breath, arms crossed and still looking totally defiant.

"So he's getting in trouble for trying to stop a boy from putting his hands on Charlie?" Scott said with a frown.

"He's getting in trouble for fighting — instead of getting a teacher or alerting anyone to the problem," the principal said calmly. "Rest assured, Jack's mother and I have already spoken at _length_ before you got here about the rest of it." He turned to face Scott and Chance more squarely. "But we expect the children in our care to settle their problems _without_ resorting to fighting — and try to teach them accordingly."

For a moment, Scott's eyes flashed, but he nodded, and Chance glanced up at him with a perfectly open expression for a moment. "That's what I teach my kids too," he said in a measured tone.

The principal let out a breath and nodded. "Chance," he said, addressing the boy directly, "I don't want to see you in my office again for fighting, alright?" Chance looked for a second like he might not agree, but he nodded slowly, and the principal sighed again. "Alright then. Thank you for coming down, Mr. Summers."

Scott looked to both of the twins and nodded his thanks to the principal before he gathered them up and ushered them out. "We'll talk about this in the car."

Charlie nodded, but Chance looked dubious — though he did at least wait until they were all buckled in before he burst out with, "They _started it_. I just _finished it_."

"That's not …." Scott let out a sigh. "That's not the point."

"But they shoved Charlie around. _And_ Julian. And they tried to steal our snowman!" Chance had his arms crossed obstinately. "They were being bullies."

"That's not how we solve our problems, Chance," Scott said.

"They were bullies," Chance argued stubbornly.

"The teachers saw," Charlie said quietly. "They just didn't get there 'til Chance was sitting on top of that boy."

"Yeah, 'cause I _won_ ," Chance said, still with his arms crossed.

"And I'm glad that neither of you were hurt, but you can't …"

"Why not?" Chance asked. "They were pushing and shoving. They needed to _stop_."

"You can't just take matters into your own hands," Scott said.

Chance settled into a pout. "But that doesn't make sense. If someone's being mean, I wanna stop them."

"I know," Scott said. "But you need to let the people in charge do their jobs. Or at least give them a chance to do their jobs before you step in."

Chance let out a long sigh and pouted horribly before he finally muttered, " _Fine_ ," as Charlie snickered quietly.

"So… is Chance in trouble?" Charlie asked, leaning forward as Chance shot her a _look_.

"I heard their side of it," Scott said. "Why don't you tell me your side — and then we'll decide if Chance is in trouble or not?"

Charlie looked toward her brother before she nodded. "We were just building a snowman, and these second-graders came to steal our big snowball," she explained. "So one of 'em pushed us, and Chance hit him."

Chance nodded. "He was not really good at fighting, though. It wasn't hard."

Scott tried very hard not to smirk as he listened to Chance's story. "And did you keep hitting him after you won?"

"No, I just sat on him so he wouldn't go anywhere and try to hit anybody else," Chance said, wrinkling his nose. "Logan said never hit people if they can't hit back."

Charlie giggled at that. "Then the teachers came and got the boys 'cause they were fighting," she explained. "So they both got in trouble."

"Char-leeee," Chance grumbled.

"We'll talk about this with your mother," Scott said. "I'm sure she won't be too happy to hear that you'd gotten into another fight."

Chance sank down a little lower in his seat as Charlie cackled. "O-kay," he said quietly.

* * *

It was Anton and Rachel's turn to come up for Sunday dinner at the end of the week, and while most of the kids were all playing together, Anton couldn't help but notice that there wasn't the usual huge hug from Chance and excited babbling about all the adventures he'd been getting up to.

"What's up with Chance?" he asked Annie as they slipped around the playing kids.

Annie let out a heavy sigh. "Oh, he's still mad at me because I told him he couldn't go to karate for a week."

Anton looked surprised to hear it. "What for?"

"Fighting at school," she said.

That seemed to shock Anton even further as he sat down with Rachel, who beat him to the punch asking, "What was that sweet boy doing fighting?"

"A couple of older boys were pushing him and Charlie around," Scott explained.

Anton shook his head and let out a sigh. "Leslie Ann used to get in trouble for the same thing," he told Scott.

"How'd you deal with it?"

"Oh, just about what you're doing, honestly," Anton said. "Got her in trouble — and she spent the whole time pointing out I was smiling about the teachers' reports."

"I seem to remember her saying something like that, yeah," Scott said with a little smirk.

"These kids, they pick up on more than we give them credit for," Anton said, leaning back with his arm around Rachel's shoulders as he looked back toward where the kids were playing with Mary Beth.

"No kidding," Scott said, the smirk widening.

"Which reminds me," Anton said, leaning forward a little. "How are things going with Leslie Ann, really? She talks about the school all the time, really loves it, but you're the actual teachers here."

"Honestly?" Scott had to smile. "The whole junior squad is amazing. They've been working hard, even with the added self-defense and training we've been throwing their way since North Dakota."

"And…" Rachel paused. "Have there been any other missions like that one?"

Scott shook his head earnestly. "No," he said. "Frankly, we're hoping that the election and change in leadership is helping. We haven't heard much from the MRD or the government, for that matter. Not lately, anyway."

"Reckon it probably helps that Captain America went to chew the president up and down over what happened," Annie said with a little laugh.

"He did?" Anton asked.

"Apparently, Kate and her friends let it 'slip' when she was there," Annie said with a smile. "And he took exception to it."

"'Cause he had an inkling of sense," Anton said, shaking his head. "Any thinkin' person would do the same; the man's just got a name and a platform to ride in to get in the door."

"True," Annie allowed.

"And what about you two?" Scott asked. "How are things at the department?"

"Everyone's gettin' excited 'bout the new guy comin' in," Anton said. "You know he ran on security and safety an' all that, and that usually means a little more in the coffers for the chief, so he's happy."

"And how's Mary Beth?" Annie asked.

"Still first chair flute," Rachel said proudly. "She wants to be in the marching band when she gets to high school in a couple years."

"Assuming she doesn't end up here," Anton couldn't help but tease. "To hear her tell it, she's been prayin' for a mutation since Leslie Ann got hers, and I ain't got the heart to tell her it might not happen."

"Yeah, we'll have to have that talk with Chance, I'm sure," Annie said with a little sigh.

"Sounds to me like he's doin' fine on his own," Anton chuckled.

"Don't _encourage_ him," Annie said, sounding exasperated.

"I ain't doin' a thing," Anton said, holding up both hands in a gesture of defense. "You think I can't tell him not to hit people, ask Leslie Ann how that worked out for her when she got in fights."

"We haven't had any problems like that with her here," Annie said.

"Well, here, she's got teachers she likes and friends she likes and I haven't heard her talk about anyone pickin' on her," Anton pointed out. "You got good kids here."

"Well, we still have the usual problems for any school," Scott said. "Leslie Ann just got in a good group."

"Yeah, we've had the girls over for a party or two," Rachel said. "They're darling. All of them."

"They're good kids," Scott had to agree, though the conversation was temporarily put on hold when the oven timer went off, and he found himself holding little Chloe while Annie and Rachel went to work getting things set out for the meal, as usual. That was just how things went every odd Sunday.

* * *

Now that they were a few weeks into the semester, the homework load was starting to catch up to Leslie Ann — and with as many students as there were at the school, sometimes, it could be hard to get a quiet place to herself to study and to _think_.

But there was also a forest close by, and that was one of Leslie Ann's favorite places to disappear to, taking her bookbag with her to climb up into the treetops and do her homework there, pulling branches in front of her to make a surface she could write on and to support her as she lay out lazily in sun.

She could only do this kind of thing when the weather was right, but it hadn't snowed for a few days, and for January, it really wasn't that cold.

She was almost done with her math homework when she was startled by a rustling down below her, and she glanced down to see that Neil had found her hiding spot and was climbing up to meet her, his own bookbag slung over his shoulder as he nimbly leaped up the branches. His mutation gave him shifting scales on his fingers so that he could climb easily, and he made it look totally effortless.

"Aren't you cold way up here?" Neil asked once he'd gotten as high as he could go without Leslie Ann's branches to support him.

She grinned at him and made a few steps for him so he could join her, rearranging the branches and growing the vines to support two people instead of just one. "Not really. I brought a good coat, and it's quiet up here," she explained, pulling her coat around herself a little tighter to illustrate her point.

"Well, I'm always cold," Neil admitted, showing off his own sparkling scales that shone a lighter blue than usual when they were coated in a light dusting of snow.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you were, like, cold-blooded or something?"

"Not fully, but I do feel really sluggish in the winter," Neil admitted sheepishly. "It's better when I'm inside by a fire or something."

"I don't do so well in the winter either," Leslie Ann told him, putting her papers in her math book to snap it shut so that her homework wouldn't blow away while she wasn't paying attention to it. "There aren't as many plants. I mean… I've got evergreens like the trees…" She gestured at the tree they were sitting in. "And I _can_ grow things in the cold, but I have to pour my everything into keeping it alive."

"Thus the greenhouse. I've seen it; it's really beautiful," Neil said with a nod.

Leslie Ann flushed slightly pink but grinned all the same. "I like the greenhouse," she said. "It was Storm's idea."

"It's warm in there," Neil nodded. "And the plants seem to come from everywhere."

"I like to try new things," Leslie Ann explained, grinning a little wider. "I'm always surprised which plants are easier to grow and which are harder."

"You have such a cool power," Neil told her.

She flushed again, this time with pleasure. "Well, like my Uncle Scott says: you get what you get," she said.

"Well, I get to be a scaly neon sign. Little bit weirder than being Mother Nature."

"No, no," Leslie Ann said quickly. "You can climb things, and isn't your eyesight, like, super sharp?"

"Yep, which seems totally counterintuitive when I'm glowing," Neil said, shaking his head. "Dr. McCoy was trying to explain the mechanics of it — you know, how I don't blind myself — but it's all still really…"

"Weird?"

"Yeah, that."

"Well, have you met Sophia?" Leslie Ann asked. "Her scales change color, and she has to keep drinking water all the time or she dries out and has a hard time doing _anything_. But she's still on the junior squad."

"Well, she can also sing people into submission," Neil pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but Jana — Jana's my best friend, and she doesn't have any fighting powers. She can just tell what people are capable of — mutants, humans, aliens, whatever. But she's still on the squad."

"What's your point?" Neil asked with his head tipped to the side.

"My point is it doesn't matter what your powers are," Leslie Ann said.

"Well, maybe not to you," Neil said, gesturing at Leslie Ann. "You think everyone's cool."

"Yeah. And?"

Neil grinned and shook his head. "And nothing," he said as he pulled the backpack off his shoulders. "Have you finished the math assignment yet? I've done all of them but number 13."

"Yeah, that one totally stumped me too," Leslie Ann admitted. "I skipped it to come back to it. I'm almost done, though."

"I bet we can figure it out if we put our heads together," Neil offered, and she grinned at him.

"Alright." She scooted over to make a little more room for him to sit comfortably in the tree with her, and they dove into it — first on the elusive math problem and then on to their other homework. Literature, science, history…

Neither of them had noticed it getting late until they started to lose the light, and Leslie Ann let out a sigh of frustration when it got dark enough that she had to squint to read. "I guess we better go back inside."

"Well," Neil said, hesitatingly. "If you want to stay out — and you don't mind the cold — I can _try_ to give us a little light."

"You've got a handle on it, then?" Leslie Ann asked delightedly.

"Just a little bit," Neil said, looking a little sheepish.

When he hesitated, Leslie Ann broke into a huge grin and made a shooing motion with both hands. "Go on, then. Let's see."

His blueish scales turned a little purple as he flushed, and then he closed his eyes, clearly concentrating on the task at hand. It had taken him a long time to get to a point where he wasn't constantly glowing, so turning it back on was a whole other problem. But… finally… he managed it: a light blue glow about the brightness of a flashlight.

"Perfect!" Leslie Ann declared with a beaming smile, lying back down on her stomach with her history book in front of him. "I really wanted to finish all this tonight so I didn't get behind with team practice tomorrow."

"You're really busy," Neil said as he lay down next to her, his own essay finished, his hands behind his head.

"I like being busy," Leslie Ann told him, still grinning. "I had to _beg_ my dad and my uncle to let me on the team, and I promised to keep working hard." She leaned forward. "Jana works harder than me, though. She's taking as much training as she can."

"I don't know that I could do that," Neil said, shaking his head lightly.

"Well, not everyone has to be an X-Man. Just because you have powers doesn't mean you gotta be on the team," Leslie Ann said with a shrug.

"Yeah, I don't think I will be," Neil agreed. "My powers are weird, and I just… that just seems like a lot."

"It is, sometimes," she admitted.

He turned on his side to face her. "What do you think you'd be doing if you weren't an X-Man?" he asked.

She pursed her lips as she thought about it, her history essay two paragraphs away from being completed — still — as she tapped her pencil against her lips. "I don't know," she admitted. "When I was a kid, I wanted to be a police officer like my dad."

"You're too nice to be a police officer."

"What?" She scrunched her nose up at him. "That's not a thing. You haven't met my dad, clearly. He's the nicest man in the world!"

"Yeah, well, he must be the exception, because it sorta seems like the police hate us," Neil pointed out.

"My dad says you can't change things unless you start by working with people," Leslie Ann said. "And I've met his work friends. Some of them are actually really nice, even if the chief is a jerk."

"Well, better a police officer than an MRD agent, anyway," Neil said darkly, and Leslie Ann leaned over to hit him. "Ow. Hey! What was that for?"

"My dad is _not_ with the MRD," Leslie Ann said.

"I never said he was!"

"Well, he's not!"

"Okay then!" Neil quickly held up both hands in a gesture of peace, and for a moment, Leslie Ann just glared at him until she went back to writing her essay. She'd finished it and was packing her bag before Neil got up the courage to break the silence again.

"I was gonna be a software programmer," Neil told her quietly.

"What do you mean 'was'?" she said without looking at him.

"Well, I'm still having a hard time not tearing the keys off a keyboard with my scales when I type," Neil said, holding up his fingers to wave them around in front of her. "Pencils and paper are a little easier, but for some reason, when I get comfortable typing and get into a rhythm, I guess I forget to concentrate on keeping my fingers flat and then — oops! — off come the keys."

"You should talk to Forge," Leslie Ann suggested as she finished packing her things. "I bet he could help you. There's no reason you shouldn't be a software programmer when you grow up if that's what you wanna be."

"Yeah… helps that us computer geeks don't have to work in offices — so no one has to know what we look like," Neil said almost under his breath as he slid down the tree.

Leslie Ann reached over and hit him again. "Stop being so down on yourself. _I_ think you look amazing. The scales look really cool in the snow."

"Really?"

"Really," Leslie Ann said, reaching over to give his arm a squeeze.

"Thanks, Leslie Ann," Neil said, glowing a little brighter with his blush. "I… needed the reminder, I guess."

"Anytime," Leslie Ann said, unable to hide her own little blush before she put her head back down and at least _tried_ to focus on her homework.

"Tried" being the operative word.


	9. Yes, 'Boss Lady' is Annie's X-Men Name

**Chapter 9: "Yes, 'Boss-Lady' is Annie's X-Man Name"**

Rachel had found another new mutant for the team to go after: a late-blooming teleporter, about sixteen, in Connecticut, named Brandon.

Even though things had been quieter for the past few months, the senior X-Men were going on extractions for the time being, just to be safe. Not that the junior squad was complaining ( _too_ loudly), considering how the last extraction they'd gone on had turned out.

And since it was a teleporter, Kurt had of course been quick to volunteer, curious to see the boy's powers as well as to see if he was related. Bobby and Rachel went along, as well as K, and all four were prepared to deal with the MRD — though obviously, they hoped they wouldn't have to.

So when they arrived at the little house in a cul-de-sac, they were relieved to see that no one else was around — and what's more, the boy in question looked to be waiting for them, sitting out on the porch with his chin resting in both hands.

Or … not. An instant later, he had disappeared — no smoke or _bamf_ sound, more like a little _pop_ and spark of light.

"So … not your little brother then," K said with a nod, looking around them as she scented the air for him and mumbled out 'gunpowder'.

"Well, he was off like a shot," Bobby had to joke.

"Oh, Lord, why do you test me so?" Kurt said, looking up at the sky to emphasize his point.

"Because you make it too easy," Rachel said, grinning as she shook her head at Bobby affectionately.

"Right, well, we'll head around the house — you two maybe go look inside?" Kurt suggested. "And perhaps try to keep your hands to yourself until after we recover?"

 _Like you have_ any _room to talk,_ Rachel projected his way as she wrapped an arm around Bobby's middle and headed toward the house.

 _I do today,_ Kurt shot right back with a grin.

 _Only because your favorite Hawkeye is home with the kids,_ she replied. _And don't tell me you'd behave even if she was here, because I_ know _that's not true._

"So sensitive," Kurt said, shaking his head.

"And so right," Rachel called his way as Bobby knocked on the door — and Brandon's parents both answered, looking a bit anxious.

"Hey there," Bobby said with a crooked grin. "We know — it's been a day. Can we come in?"

Mr. and Mrs. Yarr glanced at each other but nodded, stepping aside so Rachel and Bobby could come into the living room, where the tall boy with short black hair was sitting with his head in his hands again. He glanced up when the X-Men came in and then looked even more nervous.

"Oh. Okay. Um… hi," Brandon said as his mom sat down beside him and gently patted his shoulder, both of them looking a little overwhelmed.

"He hasn't been able to stay in any one place for longer than ten minutes before he disappears into some other place," his father explained, seemingly the only one of them who could wrap his head around an explanation.

"You need to try to focus on where you are," Rachel said to the young man. "That's why we're here, actually. To offer you help getting your new abilities under control."

"I really… don't want to... thanks," the boy said, shifting. "I'm on the basketball team at school; I'm going to get a scholarship if I keep it up."

"I understand that," Rachel replied kindly. "I do. But you won't be able to do any of that if you can't keep control. We can help — and then you can go right back to your life."

"And miss the whole season," he said miserably. "This is really rotten timing."

"I doubt your coach will let you play at all if you're … popping in and out," his father pointed out.

Brandon put his head in his hands again and shook his head quietly. "How long do you think… how long does it take people to get control?" he asked at last without looking up at any of them.

"That all depends on how much work you put into it," Rachel replied. "And how well you get along with your new coach."

"You guys have basketball there?" he asked, still a little bit dazed after the day he'd had.

"Not an official team," Bobby replied.

Brandon finally nodded and passed both hands through his hair. "Alright. So… how does this work? Do you need my school records or... ?"

"We can get you anything you need," his mother agreed, speaking to Bobby and Rachel and still looking incredibly nervous.

"Copies would be fine, if you can manage it," Rachel replied.

She nodded and rested her hand on Brandon's shoulder. "And you'll send him back when he stops… doing… this?" she asked haltingly as Brandon seemed to prove her point by disappearing again — walking back through the door from the kitchen a few moments later with a clearly annoyed look on his face.

"Of course," Rachel said as she produced a business card from her pocket. "Feel free to call or stop in anytime. We don't stop parents from seeing their kids."

Brandon's mother's shoulders visibly relaxed, and his father chuckled. "She'll probably call often."

"Me. She'll call me," Brandon said, shooting his mom a _look_.

"If you have a cell phone, you can bring that too," Bobby added.

Brandon's mother looked surprised. "That's … that's good to hear, but it's just not what people say," she admitted. "I thought …"

"We're … _not_ MRD," Rachel said, a bit of color rising in her cheeks. "We're the X-Men. I thought that was clear." She gestured to the insignias on their uniforms.

Brandon's parents shared a glance, and his mother sighed. "You have to understand," she said, sounding totally deflated. "Everything we've heard… there aren't any _options_ for boys like him… people said that school of yours would take him away…"

The radio crackled at Bobby's ear, and he glanced to Rachel with a look … "They're here, and they brought reinforcements." He glanced out the window and nodded almost to himself. "If you don't want to be locked up, come with us now. Our backup can hold them off while we get to the jet."

"Who's 'them'?" Brandon asked, already getting to his feet.

"Militarized MRD," Rachel replied. "They've been capturing mutants around the country."

"What for?" he asked, looking suddenly more nervous than before.

"I'm pretty sure you don't want to know," Bobby said as he iced up. "It's not good."

Brandon nodded, sticking close to Bobby. "We can go out the kitchen door?" he offered. "It's sort of hidden behind the hedges. They might not have spotted it yet."

The two X-Men and Brandon slipped out of the side of the house, and Brandon pulled up short when, for the first time, he got to see the MRD up close — a few vans and a whole lot of agents in military-grade gear. Thankfully, for the moment, they were occupied with the other X-Men who had come with Bobby and Rachel.

Brandon could instantly recognize the blue-furred X-Man that was Nightcrawler as well as the famous "K" — and he stared for a second before Bobby pulled his arm to keep him moving. "D'you think I can learn how to teleport like Nightcrawler?" he asked — surprising himself that _that_ was where his head was at.

"If we can all get back to the school, he _is_ going to be your new coach," Rachel promised. "No one knows teleporting like he does."

Brandon nodded at that, starting to feel a little better about the whole thing, though when there was a fresh round of gunfire from the backyard, that seemed to snap him back to reality and remind him just how much trouble he was in — and teleported him out to the front yard far ahead of Bobby and Rachel, closer to the car they'd been headed for in the first place.

Kurt and K had not seen any of what had happened — too busy trying to keep a clear path for Rachel and Bobby to get the new kid through — though it seemed as if Kurt teleporting in and out and removing weaponry from the soldiers was enough to get them riled even without K adding her two cents, enjoying the chance to stretch while the two of them pounded MRD.

They were nearly to the vans — where they planned to disable the vehicles too — when Rachel redirected them back to where the young man had managed to appear. In the center of danger, of course.

He looked totally caught off-guard when he appeared in the middle of the lawn, clearly not expecting to teleport. He ducked his head instinctively and closed his eyes, trying to will himself to teleport again. But the soldiers around him all raised their rifles his way, and the sound of them cocking back the bolts was plain, echoing the cul-de-sac with a finality that no one could have misinterpreted.

Rachel didn't have to try and direct her team — not with a statement like that from the MRD. Kurt and K shared a glance, and the two of them disappeared in a cloud of brimstone — though Kurt was sure to drop K over the heads of the men running the operation before trying to get in to pick up the young man in the center of the fuss.

K managed to act as distraction and deterrent at once as she tore into the commanders, giving Kurt the quick opportunity to get the boy out — though it wasn't as clean as he'd have liked, and both of them ended up getting tagged and teleported out by the bamfs, who were in a mood at their big brother getting shot. Again.

But as the little blue demons started to growl, K just let loose all the more — and didn't bother holding back the claws that Scott had requested she lay off of once she'd taken a round too.. Apparently, the MRD had forgotten that the ferals weren't likely to lay off just because their healing wasn't functioning properly. The thing that finally got her redirected to the main fight ended up being a bamf that came in and chittered in her ear for an instant before teleporting her to the car right next to Kurt — who was getting reamed out by a very nervous-looking demon for getting tagged.

"Everybody here?" Bobby called over his shoulder for just a second before he nodded to himself. "Great. We are _gone_." He floored it, shooting out of the neighborhood to the sound of the bamfs chattering.

The bamfs in the car were making over their injured friends — though they were a bit nervous about the new kid, and Kurt ended up laughing outright when K pushed two of them away, insisting that she was _fine._

"What… was that stuff?" Brandon finally asked, rubbing his chest where he'd been shot. "I thought they were gonna kill us."

"Not in the street," Kurt replied. "That would be bad for their image." He turned toward the young man and extended his hand. "Sorry to meet under such unfavorable circumstances."

Brandon looked totally taken aback but took Kurt's hand to shake it all the same. "Right. Yeah. I guess this is kind of typical, though. For you, I mean... You guys looked like you knew what you were doing."

"We try to avoid this kind of thing, to be honest," Kurt replied.

"Yeah, well, it's just that kind of day," Brandon muttered, shaking his head to himself before something seemed to occur to him and he glanced toward Bobby in the front seat. "Ah… do you guys have a plan for if I disappear from the car? Because it's been a while, and…"

"You were shot," K said, having given up on trying to push the bamfs away. "You're not going anywhere."

"The MRD has inhibitor rounds," Rachel explained before Brandon could ask. "When we get to Westchester, Shadowcat can pull out the filaments they shot you with once our doctor checks you over."

"This day just keeps getting better and better," Brandon said in near disbelief.

"Well, the better part is that they won't come looking for you," Bobby said. "Not after what they just dealt with. Those two sitting with you … threw a nasty monkey wrench in their plan."

"Which was… to lock me up," Brandon said almost dully. "You know, yesterday, the biggest problem I had was that I missed a couple free throws at practice."

"If you think they just wanted _you_ , you're crazy," K said. "And as far as your problems yesterday? Well, I guess you just became a man. Or something like it."

"Don't worry," Kurt said, smirking K's way as he couldn't help but chuckle at her assessment. "The MRD won't come to the school, not with the teachers there — and not with the security systems we have. You won't have to worry about them while you're there."

Brandon nodded and put his head in his hands again. "Thanks," he muttered quietly.

"It's our calling," Kurt replied with a grin. "I'd much rather go through a little scuffle to get you away from those people now than to have to storm the castle later, as it were."

"Even if it's been a while since we've stormed a castle," K added quietly.

"Does that happen often?" Brandon asked, glancing up at both of them.

"Not as often as cupcakes and Southern dinners," K replied. "Hope you're hungry. The Southern mama hen is probably already fretting."

"O...kay. Which X-Man is that?"

"Boss-lady," K and Kurt replied at once, and Rachel just had to laugh at both of them.

"I don't think I've heard of her," Brandon said with a quiet smile, not sure if they were messing with him or not.

"She's not actually an X-Man," Bobby said before he turned halfway around to look at them both. "And you know she hates it when you two do that."

"Kate started it," K replied, crossing her arms and leaning back.

"And besides, it's a fitting name," Kurt said, grinning impishly.

"And we have to let her have _one_ nickname stick," K added.

"That's the only nickname she's really got," Bobby pointed out. "'Southern mother hen' aside."

"'Southern mother hen' is a _descriptor_ ," K said. "Not a nickname."

"You never know," Brandon said with a quiet smile. "I've heard of some weird superhero names…" He looked up at the two of them in something like alarm. "I don't need one, do I? I just want to play basketball. You know. If… it's even possible to do that with dudes in military gear trying to kill me."

"You don't need one unless you decide you want to join the team - down the road - and it's not a requirement," Bobby clarified.

"Good, because I don't even know what it would _be_ ," Brandon said with a nearly disbelieving laugh.

"He thinks he has a say," Rachel chuckled quietly.

"Don't I?" he asked, looking between the X-Men in the group. "Didn't you guys pick yours?"

"No," Kurt and K answered at the same time — again.

"O…kay." He shook his head again and leaned back, falling silent for a long time before he finally asked, "D'you think my parents will be okay? Will they have to move?"

"The MRD doesn't usually bother the families," Rachel replied. "But I'll keep an eye out for them anyhow."

"Thanks," Brandon said. "I don't want them to get in trouble. Mom was kind of… freaking out."

"That isn't uncommon," Bobby said. "It'll get better."

Brandon chuckled and leaned back. "Yeah. It can only get better, right? Tell me it gets better."

"There are a lot of cute girls at the school your age," K said at a whisper over his shoulder.

"Yeah?" Brandon asked, seeming to perk up.

"Of course," K said with a little laugh.

"So… it's co-ed, right? You don't have … I mean, the rumors are you guys put kids on lockdown, so I'm just trying to figure out the whole deal…"

"It'll be easier to just show you, but yes, it's very co-ed," Kurt replied. "There are even dances and extra curricular activities."

"Hey, now we're talking!" Brandon said, grinning broadly. "I think I'm gonna like this place."

* * *

"I can't believe you got shot _again_ ," Kate said as she slipped down to the medical wing to collect her husband — seeing as he hadn't come straight to her when he got home, she knew where to find him.

"I wasn't alone this time," Kurt defended.

"Oh yeah, that makes me feel so much better," Kate said, rolling her eyes. She had Kaleb balanced in one arm as the little guy happily ignored Kate's criticism of Kurt in favor of blowing out little noises and grinning at himself. "What, do you have a _target_ on your chest that makes it easier to hit you?"

"I don't think that's a very fair portrayal," Kurt replied as he tried to kiss her forehead.

She gave him a stern look but let him kiss her. "You're just lucky the little demons are immune. They told me what happened."

Kurt tipped his head to the side. "No, I'm reasonably sure K was cutting her way out one way or another too … we would have been fine either way."

Kate rolled her eyes at him and then sighed, looking entirely serious. "One of these days, you're going to get hit and you won't have someone to get you _out_ ," she said softly, cupping his face with one hand.

He grinned back at her. "Have a little faith, _Vögelchen._ "

She couldn't help but chuckle at him. "I do. But you are trying it, _Engelchen_." She kissed his cheek. "So ... are you done getting those stupid things out of you _again_? Because the girls want to play with you now."

"I was in line right after K," Kurt promised. "It won't take but a moment."

Kate nodded and hopped up on the chair nearby, bouncing Kaleb as she waited, turning her attention to making little cooing noises at the little boy.

It wasn't much longer before Logan and K went by, and Logan just shook his head at the two of them. "More trouble than should be legal."

"At least mine has the half-demon excuse," Kate sang his way without even looking up.

"Like that's an excuse," he countered. "Want us to take him up to the others?"

She shook her head. "I've got my boys — and the girls are with Sying and Noh. Thanks for the offer, though."

Kitty and Hank headed over in tandem to look over Kurt next, and Kitty couldn't help teasing Kurt. "Well, at least it's in the arm this time. I think you're just doing this to get attention."

"Right?" Kate gestured with one arm to Kitty. "That's what I'm saying."

"And what if I am?" Kurt teased them right back, which had Kitty chuckling as she pulled out the filaments from his arm.

"Then clearly you're not getting enough attention," Kate said, shaking her head. "We'll have to do something about that. Maybe a Valentine's trip in a couple weeks…. It's been a while since we went down to the beach house," she said, leaning over to kiss him with a sparkle of trouble in her eyes.

Kitty laughed as she finished pulling out the filaments and dropped them onto a tray. "Well, don't let me stand in your way."

Kurt grinned at that, leaned forward to kiss Kate — and in an instant, had teleported the pair of them out of the medical wing.


	10. Here Be Dragons

**Chapter 10: "Here Be Dragons"**

Kurt and Kate had taken about a week to themselves ahead of Valentine's Day to go down to the beach house in the Caribbean — bringing the kids along as well, since the girls loved to make sand castles and play in the gentle waves.

The bamfs loved it, too and were playing with the kids when Kate and Kurt wanted a little privacy. So that the whole week had been exactly what the two of them wanted: a chance to relax and slow down.

Kaleb was lying down on the towel on the beach with a determined little look on his face, trying to move forward with little noises with each effort. He wanted to play with his sisters, clearly, though he was still too little to do much about it, and the bamfs were only fueling him, encouraging him in their chattering language as best they could. It was totally entertaining to watch, though, and both Kate and Kurt had to laugh as they watched Kaleb pull himself around.

"He's going to be hard to keep up with when he figures out crawling," Kate chuckled, leaning back into Kurt.

"Not to mention teleporting," he teased.'

"Yeah, but that's _far_ down the line," she pointed out.

"Yes, let him walk first," Kurt laughed.

Kate shook her head and leaned further back, tipping her head so she could steal a kiss. "You just can't wait for them to start teleporting," she teased him.

He shrugged lightly, an almost sheepish expression on his face. "It will be fun."

"You'll all be impossible. Dramatic little elves," she laughed. "How will I keep up with you?"

"Just hold on," Kurt teased.

"You say that now — because that just means I'll have to stick close to you," she laughed. "Any excuse."

"And you think that will change why?"

"Oh, I hope it _never_ changes," she said, pulling him down to kiss her.

While Kate and Kurt were enjoying themselves, Kari and Krissy were further down the beach building sand castles. Krissy was trying to show her little sister how to pack the sand just right so they could make good, solid walls, but Kari was still too little to get it, so Krissy just shook her head at her.

"Okay, okay. You just build a _biiiig_ pile of sand right here, okay? That can be the mountain where the dragon lives," Krissy directed, and Kari giggled delightedly and nodded.

"What you makin?" Kari asked.

" _I_ am gonna make the castle," Krissy said. "That's where the princesses live."

"Do the princesses have a little brother?"

"Mmmhmm. If you want," Krissy said, patting her little sister's hand.

"What about a prince?"

"That's the little brother."

"Noooo." Kari broke into giggles and shook her head. "No! Prince Charming!"

"Ohhh." Krissy sat back, wide-eyed, as she realized what her sister was asking. "No. No Prince Charming."

Kari scrunched up her nose. "I wanna Prince Charming."

"Why?"

"I wanna Prince Charming!" Kari's tail was switching behind her as she balled up her hands. "I wanna!"

"Okay, okay!" Krissy held up both hands. "Okay, you can have a Prince Charming, okay? He's… he's a pirate, so he's in the ocean right now."

Kari considered this for a long time before she nodded. "Okay. That works _I guess_."

"Pirates are cool," Krissy said consolingly. "You gotta cool Prince Charming."

"O- _kay_."

Krissy scooted over and gave her sister a hug. "Your pirate can come help our princesses fight the dragon later, okay?"

"What if it's a _nice_ dragon?" Kari asked.

Krissy giggled. "That's silly."

"Nu-uh. Kitty has a nice dragon!"

"Okay, but this one is a mean dragon."

"Why?"

"Because you gotta fight a mean dragon! You can't fight a nice one, silly!"

"I _guess_."

Krissy hugged her sister again. "We can play pretend there's a nice dragon after the mean one, okay? He can be friends with Lockheed."

"Okay," Kari replied quietly. "He needsa friend."

Krissy nodded happily. "You can make a mountain for Lockheed's friend," she suggested. "Lots and lots of sand — right here, okay?" She pointed out a spot close to her castle. "Then he can come visit the princesses whenever he wants."

The girls set to work — Kari building her mountains for the evil and the good dragon and Krissy building the castle itself — and were completely engrossed in what they were doing. So much so that they didn't notice that they weren't alone until a man sat down with a pair of plastic buckets and a smile.

"You'll get more sand if you have something to keep it in," he told the girls, who both glanced at each other curiously, since neither of them had seen this person before.

" _You're_ not a princess," Krissy said with her eyes narrowed.

He smiled back with a toothy grin. "No, I'm not," he agreed, though he knelt down nearby, still offering the buckets. "But I do know how to build castles."

Krissy regarded him carefully before she tentatively reached out to crab the purple bucket. "You can make your _own_ castle," she said.

He nodded once and then simply started on his own, humming to himself a tune that was almost familiar.

Kari was the more curious of the two, and she just couldn't ignore the singing anymore as she abandoned her mountain. "What's that?" she asked, still maintaining a little distance — with the pink bucket clutched in both hands.

"What?" he asked, glancing up at her for just a second before he kept meticulously working on his perfect little castle's tower.

"You singing," Kari said, still cautiously inching over. "My sister sing too. She's really, really good."

"I'd like to hear that," he said with a little smirk. He gave them both a little smile before he started carving at the towers — putting in windows and details on what should have been stone.

By that time, Krissy had come to investigate too, and she was totally wide-eyed watching him work. "How do you do that?" she asked in awe.

"Lots of practice," he replied before he held out a thicker piece of dune grass and started to show her how to draw the stone. "You must be very careful, what you take away."

Krissy nodded seriously and scrunched up her whole face in concentration as she followed where he was showing her, sighing out her annoyance when it didn't work out as perfectly as his did. "This is _hard_."

"It just takes practice," he promised, looking as kindly at her as he could. "I'm sure a smart little princess like you can figure it out quickly enough."

Krissy grinned delightedly at the compliment and nodded, her tail swishing happily behind her. "Like Mama practices shooting," she said happily, going back to her drawing.

"Can I play?" Kari asked, inching forward carefully as she watched her sister work.

The stranger extended another piece of grass like Krissy had toward the little elfling. "Of course."

Kari let out a delighted giggle as she took the piece of grass in her hands and set to work absolutely destroying her little mound of sand, though she didn't seem to be bothered as much as Krissy was that she wasn't getting it perfect.

"She'll learn," the man said quietly to Krissy when he saw her making a face toward her sister.

"She's still little," Krissy said with a heavy sigh. "That's what Papa says."

The three of them were working in relative quiet, both girls purely intent on their projects, when there was a little 'bamf' and one of Kurt's bamfs popped in to check on the girls… before prompting breaking into a look of panic and disappearing once more.

Hardly a second later, Kurt teleported to where the bamf had been, and when he saw the scene before him, he looked instantly thunderous. " _What_ are you doing here?" he demanded of his now-normally colored father.

"What have you to fear, my boy?" Azazel asked with a widening grin.

"That wasn't an answer to my question," Kurt said, his eyes narrowed and his tail switching as a few of the bamfs popped in to teleport the girls further down the beach — and behind Kurt. Both of them looked surprised... and then a little upset.

"Just checking in on my legacy," Azazel replied. "If you _must_ know."

"Don't come near my family again," Kurt said, teeth bared, in nearly a growl.

But Azazel just chuckled as he got to his feet and dusted off his hands. "Oh yes, very intimidating."

"Careful now," Kurt growled low. "You're not immortal anymore — or have you forgotten?"

"No, but that doesn't mean I'm powerless," Azazel replied.

"How did you get out of prison?" Kurt asked.

"If I tell you all my secrets, what fun would I have?" he challenged with a laugh.

"No matter," Kurt said, waving his hand. "You're going back. Now." With that, he simply teleported to where his father was and grabbed him by the arm, teleporting both of them elsewhere — still in the ocean, but to the floating prison that was the Raft.

The SHIELD agents there quickly responded to the intrusion — though they switched from addressing an intruder to taking Azazel into custody as the former demon king simply looked smug. Kurt narrowed his eyes, staying put until he could see with his own two eyes that his father was safely locked away, before he was sure to tell the head agent, "If he escapes, tell me the second you know it, please."

The agent nodded his head in agreement, then paused when he looked Kurt up and down. "Do you need medical attention?"

"What?" Kurt frowned and then quickly looked himself over, surprised to find that he was, in fact, bleeding from his right side, where Azazel had been standing in relation to himself. He swore in both English and German when he realized it, pulling his shirt up so he could see the clear, long cut for himself. " _Was is…_ " He trailed off, simply furious. "No, thank you," he told the agent before he teleported back to the island where he had just left his family.

The girls were both clearly scared, not understanding what was happening, and Krissy ran straight to him as soon as he reappeared, her eyes wide. "Papa, where'd you go?" she asked.

But Kurt just went right to looking both of them over. "Are you hurt?" he asked, concerned for both of them. "Any scratches?"

The girls shook their heads in unison. "No, Papa," Kari sang his way, looking concerned for him as she patted his cheek while he was bent down so close to her.

"We just made sand castles," Krissy said, her hands clasped in front of her nervously. "Did we do something bad?"

"No, no," he assured them both quickly, pulling them into a hug. "Not a thing. But that man .. you should not talk to strangers."

"But this is Mama's island," Krissy said. "She has strangers like the pilot and people like that!"

"Yes, but that one man … he is no friend to us."

"He show Krissy how to build castles," Kari said, snuggling into her clearly worried father to give him a kiss. "It's okay, Papa."

"We won't talk to him again," Krissy promised.

By that time, the bamfs had brought Kate and Kaleb over as well — and Kate looked to have been filled in on what had happened, if the look on her face was any indication. "Is everyone alright?" she asked breathlessly, holding Kaleb tight to her chest.

"It seems so," Kurt said, though he showed her the cut when the girl's attention was elsewhere with the bamfs.

"What did he want?" Kate asked in a soft whisper, frowning over his side.

"It appears as if he got what he wanted. For now." Kurt let out a sigh. "I never felt it."

Kate's frown only deepened at that, and she leaned forward to kiss him. "You know, I don't think the 'X-Men don't kill' rule applies to creepy ex-demons who creep around our kids," she said softly.

"I'm certain it doesn't," Kurt agreed. "And if Scott wants to argue with me on it, I'll take it to a vote."

"If Scott argues it, I'll sicc Annie on him after I tell her he was with our girls."

"He won't argue it," Kurt promised.

Kate nodded and then leaned forward to steal a kiss. "I'm glad you're alright, even if he did get your blood," she said. "It could have been worse."

Kurt sighed at that, though anything else he would have said was drowned out for the moment when Kaleb chose that moment to let out a high-pitched little squeak and then burst into giggles at his own noises.

Kate relaxed and looked down at Kaleb, a smile creeping over her face. "You're just like your father, sweetie," she teased the little boy.

"We should probably think about heading back," Kurt said.

"Yeah, I'm not exactly thrilled about the idea of staying anyplace your dad can get to," Kate had to agree with a sigh. "Would you wrangle the girls? I'll get Kaleb dressed for the weather."

"Of course," he agreed before he teleported to the two little ones, greeting them again with tickles. "It's time to say goodbye to the beach."

"Awwww," the girls chorused together. "Do we have to?"

"We do," Kurt told them, still smiling. "I'm sure that there will be sweets waiting for us when we return, though."

"Oooh, Valemtimey sweets," Kari giggled delightedly.

Krissy wrinkled her nose. "Too much kissing," she sniffed. "I don't like it."

"Good," Kurt said in an unnecessarily stern tone, purely to watch her giggle.

She gave him a little kiss on his cheek. "Kissing Papa is okay, though. And Mama," she told him as she hooked her arms around his neck so he could carry her when they went home. And with Kate finished getting Kaleb wrapped up for the cold February in Westchester, the little family appeared a few moments later back home in the kitchen — surprised to find that there was a little more of a celebration than they had expected.

Wade and Lisbet were there, as were most of the people in the mansion, and when Wade spotted Kate, he made a beeline right for her to spin her around in a hug. "Katie-bug!" he declared. "Perfect timing! Celebrate with us! Drink with me!"

Kate couldn't help but laugh as he spun her around and then set her down. "What's going on?"

"The lunatics got engaged," Logan explained.

At that, Kate broke into a disbelieving laugh, and she set Kaleb down for a moment so she could properly tackle Wade into a hug. "That's _amazing_!" she declared, her feet leaving the ground as she very nearly toppled him. "That's the best news I've heard all day!"

"It just happened," Eleanor said with a little smile from where she was perched on the counter, sitting happily with a pink cupcake in hand. "You guys missed it by maybe a couple hours."

"But you got it on camera, right?" Kate asked.

"Obviously," Eleanor giggled.

"She helped him plan the whole thing," Lisbet said with a wide smile as she wrapped her arms around Wade to steal a kiss.

"I had help," Eleanor said, still grinning, though Lisbet didn't catch the wink Eleanor shot K.

"And of course, as soon as it was official, Miss Annie Summers insisted on making a celebration of things," Lisbet said with a grin.

"Well, that's what happens when you join the family," Kate said, beaming as she snatched Kaleb back up before he could get too fussy about not getting attention.

It was no surprise at all when Chance and Charlie were the ones to come out of the kitchen carrying cupcakes with wide smiles and handing them out to everyone. "They all have red for Deadpool," Charlie told Kate.

"That's perfect," Kate told the little girl, ruffling her hair. "Your mom is smart, just like you."

Charlie giggled delightedly and nodded her agreement. "Uh-huh," she said, skipping off to give out more cupcakes.

Of course, anyone who had been around the kids could have predicted the fact that Chance went right to Elin with the cupcakes, holding one out to her with a grin.

She looked down at the cupcake and then up at him and gently shook her head. "No thank you."

Chance looked devastated. "But… but it's Valentine's," he said, staring at her with wide eyes.

"You already _got_ a Valentime," Krissy sang at him. "You can't have _two._ "

Chance looked between Krissy and Elin, looking totally gobsmacked. "But… cupcakes. You gotta have cupcakes on Valentines!"

"You have them with your Valentime," Krissy explained as patiently as she could. "And _we_ don't _need_ Valentimes." She had her hand on her hip as she gave him her sassiest pose and snatched up a cupcake. "Cupcakes are for kisses. No. Kisses."

Chance goggled at Krissy, then shook his head out at her. "Then how come you're eating a cupcake, huh?" he challenged her.

"I like frosting," she shot back. "Elin only took 'em because she _liked_ you."

Chance simply stared at Krissy for a long moment before his shoulders slumped. "I don't like this new rule," he grumbled under his breath, climbing into a chair with his arms crossed as he set his chin down on the table, pouting and not eating his cupcake.

Scott and Annie shared a look, and Annie rolled her eyes toward the little boy, making it clear that she wanted Scott to do something about the sad little Kindergartener, so he let out a breath and sat down next to Chance. "You alright, bud?"

"I don't _like_ Valentine's Day," Chance grumbled.

"I'm sorry about that," Scott said, rubbing the little guy's back as he pouted. He wasn't sure what to do to cheer him up, and the little boy just kept up the sad routine, so Scott let out all his breath. "You're not gonna eat your cupcake?"

"I don't want a cupcake," Chance said.

Scott leaned down to see Chance's expression and then nodded. "Okay, if that's what you want, I guess I'll just have to eat your cupcake," he said seriously.

Chance just shrugged. "Okay."

Scott frowned at his pouting little boy before he finally shook his head, picked Chance up, and flipped him upside down over his shoulders. "Come on," he said as Chance couldn't help but shriek with surprise as Scott carried him upside down over to where some of the other kids were. "Do you guys wanna help me and Chance build a snowman?" he asked, to a chorus of nodding heads and giggles.

Chance twisted around a little bit until Scott finally set him down, giggling despite himself at the rush of blood to his head from being upside down. "Elin, you wanna play too?" he called out. "We're gonna build a snowman. No cupcakes, just snowmen!"

She glanced up at him for a moment then nodded her head. "Okay," she called back, scrambling away from her dad and little sister.

Scott had to smirk, relieved to see Chance grinning again as he played with the other kids. That kid had his heart on his sleeve, and if this was how he was in Kindergarten… He shook his head. Well, he had Annie for help with the rest.


	11. A Desperate Father

**MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING**

 **This chapter includes an attempted lynching. Yes, the X-Men are an allegory for racism and homophobia and always have been, and we try to treat that with respect and care. We also acknowledge that there is real-life racism and homophobia, including within the Marvel universe as-is.**

 **However, while we try to be careful about the way we write sensitive topics, we recognize that this can be a triggering topic and wanted to warn you.**

* * *

 **Chapter 11: "A Desperate Father"**

* * *

Leslie Ann was grinning to herself as she got home for the weekend, her homework in her backpack as well as a Valentine she was using as a bookmark since she found it on her desk during math. It was one of those Avenger Valentines that you could get in boxes of twenty, but she still thought it was a sweet thought.

She was sure her dad would have a heart attack when Neil finally got up the courage to ask her on a date — and she was sure he was going to — but she really did think he was cute. Scales and all. He was just really nice, and she liked hanging out with him.

She dropped off her books in her bedroom, but instead of the usual family dinner, there was a barbecue outside in the backyard. Someone new had moved in across the street, and Leslie Ann's parents had invited them over, along with a few of the other neighbors, for a party, like they always did for new people.

"Do they have any kids?" Leslie Ann asked curiously as she and Mary Beth helped their mom bring out some chips while their dad carried out the big heated container of hot water so people could make their own cocoa to warm up if they wanted to sit outside — though Rachel had cleaned the house so anyone who wanted to be inside could stay in if they wanted.

"No, I don't think so," Rachel said.

"Well, darn, I was hoping there was a cute boy," she teased, and Mary Beth giggled delightedly.

"Don't let your dad hear you say things like that," Rachel warned.

"I meant a cute boy for Mary Beth," Leslie Ann said, getting even more giggles from her little sister.

"What, do you already have one?" Rachel asked, raising one eyebrow and turning to give her daughter her full attention.

"Not yet," Leslie Ann said with a grin.

Rachel shook her head at that. "You have the same tell as your aunt," she teased. "She could never lie to me either."

Leslie Ann laughed. "Well, he hasn't asked me out yet," she admitted.

"Oooh. You _totally_ have a boy," Mary Beth said, wide-eyed and grinning.

"Not _yet_!" Leslie Ann insisted, and her sister just laughed.

"You _so_ can't tell Dad," Mary Beth whispered.

"Don't I know it," Leslie Ann said, shaking her head.

The three Wright women just shared little grin as Rachel directed her girls on where to set out the food, and Leslie Ann asked her little sister about how band was going and how her language arts teacher was — since she remembered that Mary Beth said that teacher was really tough.

Finally, some of the neighbors started to trail in, and Rachel and Anton greeted everyone warmly. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the two of them, so it was obvious who the new move-ins were when there was a pause in all the warm welcoming so that there could be introductions.

The new neighbors had come up from Roanoke for the wife's work, and the husband worked from home as an IT consultant, so he was able to make the move. He seemed to get along well with a few of the neighbors, though his wife was what Leslie Ann's grandma would call "a personality" when she was being nice.

She seemed to have opinions about everything from the texture of the barbecue to the decorations in the house, and Leslie Ann quickly decided that she didn't want to have to stick around to watch her mom making the "I'm killing you in my mind" face. She filled up her plate and headed inside with Mary Beth.

The two girls curled up by the fire and chatted as Leslie Ann answered all of Mary Beth's questions about Neil. As she spoke, Leslie Ann was lazily playing with her mom's houseplant, a perennial flower that she always tried to perk up when she came by because it was really beautiful when it was in full bloom. She played with the petals until they were thicker and stronger and the stem was stiffer and the leaves were fuller.

"What are you _doing_?"

Both Wright girls looked up in surprise when they saw their new neighbor standing there, and they glanced at each other. "Just talkin' about boys," Mary Beth said, though she self-consciously took her feet off the coffee table.

But the woman was staring at Leslie Ann, and Leslie Ann suddenly got it. And her temper, admittedly, got the better of her — after dealing with all those MRD simulations for team training and being benched with the rest of the junior squad while stupid people were making it hard to even go on a simple mission.

"You better get used to it, lady, because the X-Men live just down the way, so you moved into a whole city of mutants like me," Leslie Ann snapped at her.

The woman stared at her and then let out a totally disbelieving noise as she spun on her heel, stalking out the door.

"Good riddance," Leslie Ann muttered under her breath.

"Mom's gonna be so mad," Mary Beth said, wide-eyed.

"Mom doesn't like her either. She's stupid," Leslie Ann said, waving her off. She set down her plate on the coffee table and shook her head. "Come on. Let's go do something."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Snow angels or something. There's still plenty of snow on the front lawn that hasn't melted yet under the trees."

"Could you show me how you make a desk in the tree?"

At that, Leslie Ann broke into a huge grin. "Yeah, for sure," she promised, grabbing her little sister's hand as the two of them headed out front, leaving the adults to do their thing around back.

The two girls climbed up into the biggest tree out front so Leslie Ann could show off her desk creation skills, and Mary Beth seemed to think it was the best idea she'd ever heard.

"We should so do our homework up here from now on," Mary Beth giggled delightedly.

"I can make desks for both of us," Leslie Ann promised.

Mary Beth laughed. "This is pretty much the only time I've ever _wanted_ to do homework."

"It'll wear off," Leslie Ann teased her sister.

"I dunno. Not many people can say their big sister built them a desk," Mary Beth teased. "And even less can say they did it without using any hammers and nails and stuff."

"You just must have the best big sister ever."

"You wish," Mary Beth teased, grinning as the two of them climbed back down so that they could go inside to get their things. Leslie Ann got down first and was waiting at the bottom of the tree for her sister to climb down the rest of the way when she heard the squeal of tires and spun around, instantly on high alert from all the training she had been doing — though she hadn't even turned around fully before the people in the van had hit her with a shot from those new guns.

Mary Beth screamed, which alerted the people in the back to what was going on, but neither of them could react fast enough as Leslie Ann felt someone grab her around the waist and pull her into the van — which drove off before the door was even closed.

* * *

Anton had been in the backyard using up the last of the burgers on the grill when he heard Mary Beth scream, and he didn't hesitate to burst into a full-out run, the spatula still in hand. He rounded the corner of the house just in time to see a van speeding off as his younger daughter tumbled out of the tallest tree with tears streaming down her face — and there was no sign of Leslie Ann.

He swore, loudly, and rushed to where he had parked his car, thankful that he always made a point to park around the corner so that he wouldn't be blocked when they had company if he needed to respond to something. But the people in the van already had a serious head start, and even slamming the gas pedal and getting the sirens screaming, there was still a good, long moment of pure panic before Anton spotted the van.

He somehow wasn't surprised to find that it had an MRD insignia on it, given the things that Leslie Ann had said were going on lately. But why come after his little girl? She wasn't new, and the X-Men weren't coming to introduce her like the other kids that Leslie Ann had talked about.

He had a sinking feeling that he did, in fact, know why, but he really didn't want to think about it, or he'd go into an even deeper panic than before.

The van didn't stop for Anton's lights, veering around a corner as Anton sped after it, though Anton was frustrated — but not surprised — when his call to dispatch for a kidnapping in progress didn't exactly get him the backup he wanted when he described the van he was chasing as an MRD van.

His temper was starting to boil over by the time the van pulled into what was clearly the local MRD headquarters, and he slammed the car into park as he screeched to a stop, jumping out of the car to rush to the van.

"Police," he shouted, banging on the door. "Open up _now_ and come out with your hands up."

The MRD agent who had been driving came out with a smug sort of look that just had Anton's hackles raised even further. "What's the problem, officer?"

"Open the van," Anton said through his teeth, an inch away from bashing the guy in front of him.

"I don't have to do a thing," the agent sneered, and Anton took a step closer, eyes narrowed.

"You're a suspect in a kidnapping. Now open. That. Van," Anton said low.

The agent just laughed, and that decided it for Anton as he grabbed the man by the shirt and batted away the punch that the guy tried to hit him with, pulling his arms behind him to cuff him. "I don't have time for this. You're under arrest on suspicions of kidnapping," he muttered as he put the cuffs on and then stepped around the guy to pull open the driver's side door and hit the 'door open' button to get into the van.

Once it was unlocked, Anton stepped around the guy again, flinging the side door open — but he couldn't find any sign of Leslie Ann.

The total panic gripped him as he searched through the van. The weapons and various equipment to detain mutants were off-putting enough, but there was simply no sign of his little girl.

"Leslie Ann!" he shouted, searching the floor in case there was some kind of hidden switch. He still couldn't find anything — and when he did finally trip the hidden door, there was no Leslie Ann, just more weapons and several inhibitor collars.

He stared down at the weapons for a long moment before the more logical part of his mind reminded him that he was wasting time, and he leapt from the van to where he'd left the MRD agent, frustrated to find that while he had been in the van trying to find Leslie Ann, the guy's buddies had come out to see what was going on.

He didn't care which of the agents he got his hands on first, and the one he did grab found himself slammed against the wall as his feet left the ground and Anton got right in his face. "Where did you take her?" he all but snarled.

"You'll have to be a little more specific," the agent sneered at him.

But that was just the wrong reaction, and Anton slammed the guy once more. "Leslie Ann. My daughter. Where. Is. She?"

"Don't ask me," the agent said, wincing a bit at the hard hit. "I wasn't there."

Anton let out a bark of pure anger as he tossed the man aside and made for the guy he'd cuffed. One of his friends tried to say something to the effect of Anton not having jurisdiction there — but Anton decked the guy with a left hook before he got to the MRD agent. He didn't care what the department had arranged with the MRD. This was his little girl, and this guy knew where to find her.

He grabbed two handfuls of MRD uniform as he picked the guy up and, instead of slamming him into the wall, pulled him closer. "Where is she?" he said, angry beyond shouting; his voice had turned into something a little darker and quieter, right in the man's face.

"Can't keep track of your kid, huh? Well, I'm sure she'll turn up sooner or later."

Anton's eyes narrowed, and he picked the guy up off his feet, this time slamming him into the wall hard enough that his head hit. "I know you creeps took her. I'm not playing games. Tell me where my daughter is. _Now._ "

But the guy's response was just to laugh under his breath, and Anton swore as he tossed the guy aside, his hands shaking in anger. No one in the department was going to get involved in stopping the MRD, either…

He went back to his car, still shaking with rage as he pulled out his phone. It rang twice before Scott picked up, and Anton went right to it. "Scott, Leslie Ann is gone. The MRD took her from my front yard, and I can't find her in their van or their headquarters."

"How long ago?"

"Less than an hour. Chased them for about fifteen minutes, but no one here… they must have moved her before I picked them up in the car," Anton said, trying to force his mind past the panic to the facts of the case.

"We're on it," Scott promised. "You might want to gather up the family and come over. It would be safer for you."

"I'll tell Rachel to bring Mary Beth, but I'm going to meet you there myself," Anton told him.

* * *

Leslie Ann was _terrified_.

The MRD guys that had grabbed her hadn't wasted any time in holding her down to tie her up, and even though she kicked and squirmed and screamed at them, they had tied her hands behind her back. When she kicked one guy in the jaw, his partner just responded by hitting her hard enough that she was knocked back, and then they held her down to duct tape her ankles together as well. The guy who hit her slapped a piece over her mouth as well.

She still squirmed around, but for as tied up as she was, she couldn't do very much.

She did fight them a little harder when the van pulled off to the side and the two guys in the back with her picked her up to take her out of the van.

The panic set in, and she squirmed and thrashed, but the men grabbed her arms and dragged her out of the van, which sped off a moment later. She tried to make it hard for them to take her anywhere, squirming until it was clear that wasn't going to help her get away. Then she dropped, using her body weight against them, dragging her heels into the ground until they picked her up higher.

She was too scared at first to pay much attention to where they were going, focused more on trying to keep from going _anywhere_ , but when it was painfully clear that she wasn't going to get away, she glanced around her surroundings, shocked when she realized that they seemed to be headed toward the school.

For just a moment, she wondered why they were going that way — and then all at once, it hit her that it couldn't be anything good. At all.

She squirmed a few more times, almost out of her mind terrified, but the MRD agents seemed to be more entertained than deterred by her efforts. She even heard one of them laugh when she tried to twist around to kick out with both feet. She managed to kick one of the guys in the side, but his buddy just laughed when his friend doubled over, and they both tightened their grip on her after that.

They didn't go very far into the treeline of the forest that bordered the school before the MRD agents stopped, though, and Leslie Ann felt her heart fall. If they'd just gone in another half mile or so, Noh-Varr's security system would have knocked these guys out, and she might just have had a chance.

When they came to a stop, the two MRD guys simply dropped her, and without her feet underneath her properly, Leslie Ann fell into the muddy, snowy forest floor, her heart in her throat as she tried to pick her head up. She would have rolled to her side to at least get her bearings, but one of the agents put a heavy boot on her hip, pressing down to keep her from moving.

Still, she could pick up her head, and she peered up at the second MRD agent to see what he was up to, sure that they were going to do something horrible. She didn't know what, but she knew that these were the same people who had helped build that camp in North Dakota.

At first, Leslie Ann wasn't sure what the guy was doing, but when he angled his body back her way, she saw the rope in his hands as he fastened it into a noose and simply couldn't stop it when she burst into tears, crying quietly because the tape on her mouth prevented anything louder that the muffled sounds she could make.

"Finally caught up, have you?" the man standing on her side sneered, pressing harder until she let out a muffled whimper when his boots dug into her and pushed her deeper into the ground. "Whatdya think the X-Men'll think of our little message when they find you?"

Leslie Ann was sure she was going to throw up. Or pass out. Or something. She felt like her heart was beating too hard, and she couldn't catch a breath right for how scared she was. She couldn't get up because of the guy standing on her, and his partner was just a few feet away stringing a rope over a tree.

She was sure she was going to die.

* * *

Scott had been ready to tear the town apart looking for Leslie Ann, so he was surprised when Rachel came back with a location much closer to home:

 _She's in the forest on the east side._

 _On it,_ Scott replied, already relaying that information to the other X-Men, though the fact that it was so close… it honestly just had Scott falling into even deeper concern than before. This close to the school meant the MRD were looking for either a fight or a statement. And he sincerely hoped it was the former.

Anton had already been headed to the school, and he didn't even drive the rest of the way up the long and winding driveway when he saw that Scott was headed out; he just pulled over and rolled down the window. "Did you find her?"

"She's still on the move in the forest," Scott told him.

"In the …" It was clear in Anton's expression that he had come to the same conclusion that Scott had as to why they would be so close to the school, and he simply threw his car into park and jumped out, taking off at a run alongside Scott.

Logan met them at the treeline as Scott relayed to Rachel that Anton was with him. She had sent the others into the forest as well — Kurt and his bamfs were searching, along with Hank, Tyler, and K on tracking — a task that was made a little more difficult with the fact that Leslie Ann spend all her time in the forest among the trees and plants, so her scent was all over the place. Storm, Bobby, Remy, Mistral, Kate, Noh, Jubilee — everyone was involved trying to find the missing girl.

And Scott was sure to relay as much to Anton. "We'll find her fast," he promised, though Anton didn't answer except to clench his jaw and nod.

Not that Scott could blame him. If it was _his_ little girl… He shook his head and kept on running.

They'd gone beyond Noh's security lines when Logan very suddenly switched from searching to a dead run. Scott glanced to Anton and was glad to see that the worried father wasn't asking any questions, instead breaking into a run as well to keep up with Logan as he barreled down the scent trail he'd clearly picked up.

It was lucky for them that it was still winter and that, even with the evergreen trees, the foliage was still sparser than usual. If it had been any other season, they might not have seen Leslie Ann when they did.

There wasn't time for any of the three men to fully process the full scene beyond simply the fact that the MRD agents had tied a rope around her neck, and one of the MRD agents was in the middle of pulling the other end of that rope when they spotted him through the trees.

Scott immediately took aim and shot through the rope — and the branch it was connected to — and Leslie Ann hit the ground again. The man who had hold of the other end of the rope would have been Scott's next target, but at the same instant he had fired his optic blast, he heard the sharp rapport of a gun beside him. When he did finally look over, he saw that Anton had pulled his sidearm — and the MRD agent was dead.

And Logan ... Logan was bounding after the guy's partner with his claws out and a full snarl on his lips as the guy scrambled to get away.

 _LOGAN,_ Scott screamed through the connection Rachel had set up for them, and while Logan didn't pause, Scott was sure he had Logan's attention as he called out, _Forget the badge!_ while he rushed to Leslie Ann to check on her.

 _DONE,_ was the half-snarled response through the connection as Logan tore through the trees.

Anton got to Leslie Ann first, pure terror in his gaze as he dropped to his knees beside her, though it was clear she was breathing from the fact that her shoulders were shaking. She was trembling all over, clearly terrified, and Scott arrived a moment later to quickly help Anton untie her.

As soon as she'd been cut free and the tape was removed, Leslie Ann took in a deep, shuddering breath that reached all the way to her bones — and then another one, gasping in air like she hadn't been able to do with the tape over her mouth. And after just a few breaths, she fell into sobs, clutching onto Anton as Anton pulled her tightly to him, cradling her right there on the forest floor.

He held her as tightly as he dared — while still giving her room to breath — as she held onto his shoulders for everything she was worth, unable to stop sobbing as she cried her pure terror out onto his shoulder. He had one hand on the back of her head as he held her, and he kissed her temple gently as he rocked slightly and whispered out that she was safe, that he was there, that no one was going to hurt her.

When Logan came up to the little group a short while later, he had that look on his face that Scott knew meant he wasn't quite done yet. "I found a solid trail out. Gonna run it down," Logan said evenly. "K's going with me."

"From what Anton told me, you're just going to follow it back to the road. The drive went back to their headquarters," Scott said.

Logan held up the second guy's wallet. "I might have a location and a way in."

Scott paused and looked back at Leslie Ann before he nodded. "Alright."

"You got the little ones, right?" Logan asked just as he turned to leave.

"Yeah. Annie and her sister are already on it," Scott said.

Logan nodded and looked toward Leslie Ann and her father before he melted into the woods. "See you guys a little later. Rest up."

Anton, meanwhile, glanced up to see that Logan was gone and let out a sigh. "We should get inside," he said softly as he picked Leslie Ann up and started to carry her back toward the school.

The rest of the search party was filing in slowly from the woods, and most of them looked furious still. Kurt made his way over to them in a quick poof of smoke and then offered Anton his hand. "I know Dr. McCoy would like to look her over quickly."

Anton nodded once. "Yeah, alright," he said, still holding onto Leslie Ann tightly as the three of them teleported inside. Anton had never teleported before and immediately took in a deep gasp when they arrived, slightly wide-eyed.

"It's a little disorienting the first time," Kurt said gently before he guided him toward where Hank was waiting. "If there was a way to prepare you I would have."

"That's just about how this whole damn thing works anyway," Anton muttered as he shook his head and brought Leslie Ann to set her gently down for Hank.

Hank wasted no time making sure his patient was comfortable, though to Anton's surprise, the furry blue doctor didn't immediately assess her, instead taking care to pull her into a hug and promise that it was being taken care of until he too was convinced that the little girl wasn't going to fall apart.

From there, he worked quickly and gently to check her over and then, with a quick flourish, handed her a Twinkie with a smile. "For only my best patients," he told her.

She nodded with the hint of a smile and then threw her arms around his neck for another hug as Anton let out a breath and whispered 'thank you' over the top of her head to Hank.

"My pleasure," Hank replied. "She's a wonderful girl."


	12. Billy Gets Involved

**Chapter 12: "Billy Gets Involved"**

The rest of the X-Men had gathered in the War Room while Hank was attending to Leslie Ann and Anton, and most of them were clearly still livid — even moreso once the specifics of the whole situation had spread.

"You know they dropped the comms," Kitty said as she looked up at Scott.

"I know," he said. "We might have a little video from Anton's police cruiser, actually, but beyond that…"

"It's not really going to help them, not with those two chasing them down," she replied.

Scott nodded again. "I'm not really concerned about that group. It's the rest of the MRD that we should focus on."

"And do what, exactly?" Bobby asked. "Because we're missing a couple key people."

"They're where they need to be right now," Scott replied.

"Which is where?" Billy asked, sliding into a seat with his arms crossed.

Scott turned his way with one eyebrow raised. New powers or no, that was going to take some getting used to. "Hunting."

"Did it ever occur to you that's exactly what they want?" Billy asked in an even tone.

"It did," Scott replied with a little nod. "But I also know those two are smart enough to make it surgical. Alone, either one would be able to pull it off. Frankly, with the two of them together, I … have no doubts."

"Which would be inspiring to hear if this particular branch of the MRD didn't have a plan in place to broadcast exactly their side of what happened the second you make them into 'martyrs'," Billy said calmly.

"I don't believe that they're dumb enough to get caught on camera."

"Doesn't matter," Billy said. "All they need is a headline of 'mysterious deaths' and the MRD putting out a statement that it was retaliation." He shook his head. "Listen… things are about to get bad. But I'm really, really trying to keep them from being _deadly_."

"It's already crossed that line," Scott admitted.

"I meant for you guys," Billy said. He shook his head and disappeared in a flash of light again — this time to try and find Logan and K, surprised when he caught up with them within eyesight of the MRD headquarters.

" _WHOA wait a minute!I"_ he shouted.

Both of them stopped and turned his way slowly. "What's the problem?" Logan asked quietly. "We've got this under control."

"You really don't," Billy said, shaking his head as his eyes glowed a little brighter. "These guys _want_ you to make them martyrs. If they couldn't scare you off or make a statement, that's what they want."

The two little ferals paused and shared a look. "What if … we just go find their marching orders?" K asked.

Billy paused, watching both of them uncertainly. "That … could work."

"We _are_ trained to be more than just assassins," Logan said, catching on quickly with a little smirk K's way.

"I know, but you were going in there on the warpath," Billy said.

"Yes."

"If you get the marching orders…" Billy seemed to concentrate on something neither of them could see. "That… it'll help. There's still a lot of trouble ahead, but it'll help."

"Want to watch out for us?" K asked. "Since … you seem to be doing that already."

Billy blushed a little. "Sorry. I just… _really_ don't want to see that other reality in this one."

"Great," Logan said with a nod. "Then this will be your infiltration training."

"Oh… I… I wasn't…"

"Come on starshine; you don't get to start handing out orders and not get your hands dirty. Or not dirty. Whatever," K said, making her way over to pull him closer. "This shouldn't take too long."

Billy simply stared at her for a moment before he swallowed. " _Iwanttobeinvisble_ ," he chanted under his breath and disappeared entirely — though not like Eleanor, since K could still scent him.

"Perfect," Logan said with a nod. "Stay between us. We'll watch for triggers."

"I'll follow you," Billy agreed, trying not to sound too excited. Demiurge or no, this was a chance to see Wolverine and K in action, and at heart, he was still the same fanboy he'd always been.

* * *

It was evening by the time they got back to the mansion, and Billy was grinning _widely_. He had a few files and a flash drive clutched in his hands. For as excited as he was, he felt like a teenager again — but he couldn't exactly help it. He'd gotten to see Logan and K sneaking. Up close.

"We brought back intel from the headquarters," Billy told Scott, who looked surprised to see that Billy was with Logan and K. "Marching orders, communiques, names of people in charge — and nobody died either, so ... win-win!"

"And Billy did wonderfully once he learned a few little tricks," K said with a little smirk.

"I see you decided to turn this into a training exercise," Scott said, matching her smirk as he sat down to look through some of the intel.

"Thought you'd like that, Scooter," Logan replied.

"Just not quite what I was expecting," Scott admitted, though he couldn't help smirking with how _widely_ Billy was beaming and half bouncing on his toes.

"We adjusted with new intel," Logan said, sitting down between K and Billy.

"I convinced them playing into the MRD's plans was a bad idea," Billy said with a grin.

"But we still wanted to screw with them, so …" K said with a shrug.

"We can use this," Scott said with a nod, skimming through what they had. "There's intel here on where they're getting their calls…." He paused and frowned, flipping back to a previous page to read a little closer. "Logan," he said quietly. "Can you get Gabriella down here?"

"Sure thing," Logan said with a nod before he got up and headed off to get the girl.

"What's the story, brown eyes?" K asked.

"Her name's in this intel," Scott said, pushing the page he had just finished reading her way.

"Well, we grabbed everything that looked like it might be useable," K said. "Didn't exactly sift through it very well first."

Scott nodded. "Yeah, I figured. That's what debriefs are for — but check that, would you? If they've been getting calls from inside the school…"

She took the files closest to her and pushed some Billy's way too. "You gotta do this side too, sweetie."

"Teddy's gonna be so mad at me leaving him for this long," Billy teased even as he looked over some of the papers, concentrating hard to be able to read in the _here and now_. He had a pretty good handle on his powers, but… there were some things, like reading, that he still struggled with.

"Tell him we'll take him out to do something next week," K said distractedly.

Billy chuckled. "He'll hold you to that."

"If this is any indicator, we'll have plenty to do," K replied.

"The whole team will," Scott said, still frowning down at the intel.

The three of them fell silent until Logan arrived with the little telepath — who seemed to know she was in trouble already and was nervously wringing her hands in front of her.

Scott watched the young girl sit down and watched her wordlessly for a moment. "We've got the phone records for the local MRD headquarters," he told her, and the girl simply nodded, her lip quivering. "I know they've been getting calls from your cell phone."

She nodded miserably.

"Why you been doin' that?" Logan asked.

She opened her mouth to speak but took a few tries to get the words out. "I… my uncle said … he wouldn't tell the MRD about me," she mumbled, still wringing her hands.

"So you were willin' to sell out everyone here that easy?"

She looked even more miserable. "He's in the MRD," she said.

"Gimmie a name," Logan replied.

Gabriella looked surprised as she glanced up at him. "He's gonna know I told you," she said with wide eyes.

"We're not going to throw you to the wolves," Scott assured her.

She looked between Scott and Logan for a moment and swallowed, scribbling down her uncle's name and the phone number she had called.

When Logan got up to run the number, he gave the girl's shoulder a little squeeze. "Tell him everything, darlin'."

Gabriella glanced up at Logan and bit her lip, starting to cry a little as she nodded and turned back to Scott, very quietly explaining how her uncle was an MRD agent, how her parents were disgusted with her being a mutant, how her uncle had taken her down to MRD headquarters just to sit in the parking lot and tell her what the MRD did to mutants before he'd promised to keep quiet on her identity if she'd tell him where the X-Men were going when they went to get new mutants.

"You don't have to worry about him anymore," Scott promised. "He's not going to touch you."

"He said he'd kill me if I told anybody," Gabriella said miserably. "He said we were all going to die anyway."

"That's just not gonna happen," K told her earnestly.

"I can turn him into a sea snail if you want," Billy offered, so earnestly serious that Gabriella was surprised into a shocked smile. "No, really."

She shook her head quickly. "No… thanks, that's ... no thank you."

"You're such a fluffball," K teased him quietly with an elbow to his ribs.

"Just how I was made," Billy said with an easy shrug and a smile.

* * *

Teddy, meanwhile, had been watching the twins while Billy was gone. They were still a little too young to fully understand everything, but they _did_ know that they didn't like Billy being gone for this long, so it had been a little exhausting in the meantime.

But, eventually, he'd managed to wrangle the two of them into their pajamas and had even gotten into the second story at bedtime before Billy _finally_ showed up again.

"Sorry," Billy said, dropping down beside Teddy with a _grin_ on his face that said he wasn't actually that sorry.

"Oh, sure. You go off and let me do all the hard work…" Teddy said, though it was hard for him to maintain the death glare when Billy looked like he did. Billy's smile had always been one of his favorite things about him.

"I'll make it up to you," Billy promised.

"You'll have to come up with something pretty spectacular," Teddy said with a smirk, mostly to get a rise out of Billy.

"Would it help if I promised to tell stories of how I got some on-the-spot sneaking lessons from Wolverine and K?" Billy asked, the smile only widening.

Teddy let out a noise that he couldn't stop, even if he was trying to be gentle with the kids as they were _finally_ settling out — even if that battle was over long ago when they were swarming Billy for hugs. "You went _without me_!"

"I really wasn't expecting—"

"You're an all-knowing demigod!"

But that, at last, got both of the twins giggling, and Harry in particular grinned crookedly up at Billy. "You in tru-bble!"

Billy laughed and ruffled both of the kids hair — which turned into a tickle fight in absolutely no time at all.

Eventually, though, even with all the excitement going around, Teddy and Billy were able to regain some semblance of calm, and _finally_ , the twins were tucked in, on either side of Billy and fast asleep.

Teddy smirked and leaned over to kiss Billy's cheek. "We're not done talking, handsome."

Billy shook his head and then pulled Teddy into a better kiss. "You know I'm still learning," he said in a whisper.

"But…"

"But I'll try to do better about letting you know when there are adventures to be had."

"And…"

Billy smirked, and the next thing either of them knew, they were in their bedroom, and Billy was kissing Teddy. "Not only will I make it up to you, but K said you could go with them next week for more sneaking."


	13. Anton on the Warpath

**Chapter 13: "Anton on the Warpath"**

Jubilee had been looking for Leslie Ann for a few hours. She knew the girl was upset, and no one had been able to talk to her outside of her family, so she knew that it was long overdue … this little talk.

She knocked on the doorframe and leaned in the open doorway as she peeked into Leslie Ann's room. "Anybody home? Firecracker bearing sugar and hugs …"

Leslie Ann was curled up in the blankets on her bed but glanced up when she came in. "Oh, hi," she said quietly, putting her Valentine's card bookmark in her book — where she'd been reading the same page for a while now — to set it down on the bedside table by the flowers Neil had brought her.

Jubilee made her way over to Leslie Ann's bed, almost dancing as she was often seen doing instead of walking. "Pretty flowers for a pretty girl."

"That's sort of what Neil said, except he just sort of left them here and left," Leslie Ann said with a small smile.

"Well … that's totally what he meant," Jubilee replied before she pushed a small box her way. "And sweets for the sweet from the sweetest."

Leslie Ann smiled a little more at that. "Did you plan that out before you got here?"

"That? Oh. that's totally like standard issue for … ever." Jubilee grinned. "At least, for as long as I've been here." Again she pushed the box closer. "It's kind of my personal 'sorry people suck so bad, but we love you' offering."

Leslie Ann nodded and took the little box, popping one of the candies inside into her mouth with a small smile. "Yeah. Mom says some people are just… evil," she said around the candy in her mouth.

"She's not wrong," Jubilee agreed, taking a piece of chocolate out of the box for herself. "We just see more of it because we kinda try to stop creeps like that."

Leslie Ann sniffed and nodded, leaning over to rest her head on Jubilee's shoulder.

"You know," Jubilee said with a little smirk. "They _used_ to say 'Welcome to the X-Men, we hope you survive the experience.'" She shook her head lightly. "I was really hoping we'd have moved on from that by now."

"That's a really horrible welcome message," Leslie Ann muttered.

"And sadly it's pretty appropriate," Jubilee said. "But - they fight like crazy to keep that from happening. We have a good team."

Leslie Ann nodded, still resting her head on Jubilee's shoulder as she paused over her next words. "I don't… I don't know if I want to be on the team anymore."

"You don't have to be," Jubilee told her. "You can take a break, or quit altogether. It's not for everyone and all of us have needed a break sooner or later. Even your uncle has taken breaks before. Left the team for a while … it happens."

"Yeah, that's how he met my aunt," Leslie Ann agreed.

"Oh … that wasn't his first break though," Jubilee told her. "He quit and Storm led the team for a while. That was before I got here even."

"I didn't know that," Leslie Ann said, picking her head up with slightly widened eyes.

"Yeah, it happens," Jubilee said with a little smile before she put her arm around Leslie Ann's shoulders, and the little girl just leaned into her for a long moment. She was all sobbed out, but she did still cry a little, quietly, still obviously shaken by the whole thing.

"Everybody keeps saying it's safe at the school," Leslie Ann said with a little sniffle.

"It's the safest place there is," Jubilee agreed. "And they tried purposely to ruin that for you. Don't let them."

"I can't even look at the trees," Leslie Ann admitted, hiding her face in Jubilee's shoulders.

"Well, that's just because you didn't see Wolvie chasing that guy down. I am telling you — that guy wet his pants long before he caught him."

"Dad says he doesn't know what happened to the guy he didn't shoot," Leslie Ann said with a small smirk. "He wrote that on his report, too."

"Logan says the same thing. No idea what happened," Jubilee agreed before she leaned closer to whisper, "It's a mystery."

Leslie Ann let out a breath of a laugh. "I'm really glad Logan was there with my dad and Uncle Scott," she admitted.

"He was _so mad_ ," Jubilee said. "Screwing with little girls … talk about a death wish."

"Yeah… I think they were... Just… spectacularly stupid."

"They really really were," Jubilee agreed. "But everyone here is backing you up too. Just so you know."

Leslie Ann nodded and settled into a hug with Jubilee very quietly, just hanging onto the older woman and glad to have someone around, while Jubilee simply hugged the girl and told her a few other X-Men stories on how the team had handled the supreme stupidity that followed mutants, knowing from experience that sometimes, the only thing that helped was solidarity.

* * *

After Anton had filed a report on what had happened, he was put on administrative leave while the use of force was under investigation — standard procedure. But he had known there were going to be consequences.

The MRD agent that he'd shot — that part of everything that had happened was actually the most straightforward. That was a classic use-of-force scenario, since there was a real threat to a child and civilian in his daughter. There was a priority of life in these cases. That part of the report wasn't going to be a problem.

Now… what had happened at the MRD headquarters was another question entirely. Anton wasn't actually sorry, but he did understand that tossing around those three guys would have its consequences.

All three MRD agents had filed official complaints, and the chief had already told Anton that he was lucky they weren't pressing charges — though Anton had a feeling it was only a matter of time.

The local paper had picked up the story of the shooting and the investigation, so Anton knew that there was a lot of pressure on the chief in this case. Which meant he really wasn't surprised when the chief called him looking like he was nursing a headache as Anton sat down in front of him.

Anton gave him a little smile. "Yeah, reporters are a headache," he said, thinking of the nonstop calls he'd had to field since the story hit the local — and then statewide — papers. He hadn't answered any of them, since the investigation was still ongoing, but that hadn't stopped them from trying.

The chief simply nodded his agreement at that and clasped his hands in front of him. "There isn't any video evidence of what happened in the woods, Anton," he started out.

"You have witness statements."

"Yes, but I'm getting a lot of pressure from—"

"That's crap, sir," Anton interrupted, already knowing where the chief was going with that. "You know what happened. You know me. You know I don't shoot unless that's the only option."

The chief shook his head. "And what happened at the MRD headquarters—"

"Sir, I've already said I take full responsibility for that. But you and I both know there's not a jury in the world would convict me for tryin' to find my little girl. As it was, I only just got there in time to save her _life_. I ain't apologizin' for it."

"The agents you attacked weren't involved—"

"You feed me that line one more time, and I'll quit right here and now," Anton said, eyes narrowed. "Turn in my badge. 'Cause anyone stupid enough to think they didn't know exactly what was goin' on just ain't worth workin' for."

"You won't have to do that," the chief said, falling into a glare at Anton's threat. "As of this morning, you are terminated from the force."

Anton met the chief's glare with one of his own. "Is that all you wanted me here for?" he asked.

"More or less," the chief said. "There's a preliminary hearing set for next week."

"Yeah, I know."

"So don't go anywhere—"

"Yeah, I know." Anton got to his feet, his hands clenched at his sides in simple fury.

"The three MRD agents you assaulted are going to be pursuing a civil suit," the chief told him.

"Fine with me," Anton said, a little fire in his gaze. "Let 'em sit on the stand and let the world know what they been doin', 'cause it's high time somebody went an' took 'em down a peg. Might as well be me."

The chief got to his feet as well, looking furious. "No department is ever going to hire you with this on your record," he said.

"I did exactly what any father would do — and my record as a cop is clean. You're just mad 'cause it's the MRD."

"They've helped us significantly in dealing with mutant problems—"

"They're thugs and sadists, and you know it," Anton bellowed back, finally losing his cool as the chief leaned back. Anton slammed his hands on the desk in front of him. "Dress it up all you like, chief, but don't lie to me. If they wanted to kill my baby girl, they coulda shot her right there in the front yard. But they drove her to her school and tried to _lynch my baby_." He was shaking with anger as he thought of it. "You can't tell me lookin' like she does and bein' who she is that it was anythin' but what it was."

The chief simply glared at Anton. It was clear he didn't have a good argument, but he didn't appreciate being chewed out, either.

"That's my baby _girl_. She's biracial, _and_ she's a mutant," Anton said, speaking slowly and clearly so the chief wouldn't misunderstand. "You tell me what you think they were up to."

"That's enough."

"Yeah." Anton spun on his heel to let himself out. "Y'all spend your time callin' the X-Men terrorists, but I think you forgot the meanin' of the word 'cause you're spendin' your time in bed with the real terrorists."

With that, Anton stormed out of the precinct, still fuming the more he thought about everything that had happened. He was still mad by the time he drove up to the school — since Scott had offered his family a place to stay there after everything that had happened — though he was surprised when it was Hawkeye, of all people, who approached him as he silently and angrily poured himself some coffee — black.

"How'd it go?" she asked as she poured herself a mug of her own.

Anton couldn't pull back his glare. "Just great," he muttered out. "Went and got myself fired, facin' an investigation, gettin' sued by a cult of murderers for excessive force. Real peachy."

Kate watched him for a moment as she hopped up to sit on the counter. "You know," she said slowly. "I keep an eye on the news. Professionally, I'm looking out for things like this… I mean, I go on often enough and I'm well-known as a mutant lover, so they seem to think I know about everything that goes on mutant-related."

"What's your point?" Anton asked sullenly.

"The point is: your story's on statewide television as a cop roughing up some MRD guys. But I've got a few contacts in national television if you want your side told." She smiled at him genuinely. "I mean, if you've been fired, why not give the guys responsible a black eye publicly?"

"Who you gonna have me talk to that's gonna listen?" Anton asked. "All I been gettin' is an earful on how I'm interferin' with the MRD and with makin' people safe, disgrace to the uniform, the whole nine."

"Would you believe J. Jonah Jameson?" Kate asked.

Anton stared at her. "No. No, I would not."

But that seemed to get her to grin that much wider. "I know, he's a jerk and an idiot and I've gone eight hundred rounds with him, so I'd know as much. But he also cares about the truth, and this kind of thing? He'd give you a fair shake. And when _J. Jonah Jameson_ is arguing on the side of the mutant-loving cop? You got yourself a whole national audience paying attention," Kate said, grinning over the top of her coffee mug.

He frowned her way for a long moment as he thought it over. "I don't want Leslie Ann dragged into the spotlight."

"Believe it or not, JJ can respect that. He's a father — that's the one thing you can appeal to with this guy that he'll reliably cave on," Kate said.

"I don't want Rachel or Mary Beth dragged into it either."

"You're the one who shot the guy, Anton. You're the one being investigated — so you're the story."

Anton considered it for a long moment and finally let out a breath of a laugh. "Why not?" he said, leaning back on the counter. "This is the last job I'll have. Might as well go out with a bang."

"That's the spirit," Kate said with a grin. "I'll set up the interview."

* * *

Kate had decided to go with Anton to the studio when he went to do the interview — so that she could be there for not only moral support but to bug JJ and his team about getting the story done right. The whole school was still seething over what had happened, and Kate would love to punch the MRD in the metaphorical PR gut and watch the whole thing blow up in their faces.

By that time, she was actually pretty good friends with half the people on JJ's crew, and she definitely saw Anton smirk her way when he caught her chatting easily with two of the cameramen during the commercial break.

"You'll be fine," she mouthed his way as she took a step back from the crew the closer it got to being time for the segment, and Anton nodded. He wasn't much for public speaking, so this was an entirely new experience for him.

JJ, on the other hand, was very obviously in his element as he went into the intro. "Our top story is one close to home for us here at the studio — literally. One of our state policemen was involved in a police shooting that left one MRD agent dead and saw three agents battered. Until now, the local press has been classifying this as an assault but have failed to report the other side of the story — involving a kidnapping and attempted murder by these MRD assailants. Here with me now is the former officer in question, Anton Wright."

Anton nodded with a nervous smile at the introduction, remembering what Kate had prompted him with — "Thanks for having me here" — as he wondered what he should do with his hands. Clasped in front of him seemed good. He was no good at this.

"Mr. Wright, if you could tell our viewers, in your own words, just what happened. We have the report you filed with the department, but if you could give us any details…"

Anton nodded, still feeling out of place under the bright lights, though at least this part was simple enough. He'd given enough reports to know how this went and without thinking about it, he seamlessly began to report his version of events as if he was debriefing with a superior officer. At least to start. He described the scene at the barbecue, the chase, the desperate call to the X-Men, and the circumstances leading to the shooting. "I wasn't going to let him kill my baby girl," he finished at last, his voice filled with heat that kept building the more he told of the story.

JJ's face had turned a peculiar shade of red as the story went on that Anton hoped was a good thing before he burst out with, "Well of _course_ you weren't!" that surprised Anton with its fury. JJ seemed to clear his throat for a moment before he turned back to his notes. "Now you said here that you called in the kidnapping to dispatch — so why were you the only officer on the scene?"

"No one responded," Anton said, wondering why JJ was having him repeat himself when he'd already said he had done the chase on his own.

"So police _failed to respond_ to a kidnapping in progress?" JJ looked furious. "Why?"

Anton shrugged. "It's the MRD."

"And that gives them a pass with the very people sworn to protect and serve our community when they conspire to commit murder?" JJ fumed. "Is this really the state of our law enforcement?"

"They've been ordered to stand down when the MRD is on scene," Anton replied.

"Surely you can use your discretion when the MRD itself is committing criminal acts!" JJ sputtered. "No badge can excuse _anyone."_

"I _did_ tell dispatch they'd grabbed my little girl," Anton pointed out.

"And now the one officer responding to a crime is being prosecuted for it," JJ said, growing more purple as he spoke. "This is the _United States of America_ — we don't live in a police state!"

At that, Anton could see Kate somewhere beyond the cameras, both hands outstretched like she was urging him on. "That's the truth of life for my little girl, Mr. Jameson," Anton said as calmly as he could. "Because of who she is, the MRD can kidnap her and try to kill her practically on her own front lawn, and no one will stop them. No one on the force, anyway."

"Yes, I saw in your report that it was ultimately the X-Men who helped find the missing girl," JJ said, looking down at his notes. "You called Cyclops directly?"

Anton nodded, deciding full disclosure would be in his best interests. "He's my brother-in-law, actually. He married into the family almost eight years back. My daughter goes to school there ever since we found out she was a mutant."

"So the fact that she was brought to the school was no coincidence."

"If you think for a second the MRD didn't know exactly who they had, you're crazy," Anton said with a sharp nod. "I can't tell you if it was because she's going to school there, because of who her uncle is, or because she's gone out with the X-Men to try and keep other mutant kids from having the same thing happen to 'em — or if it's a combination. Don't know what it was that prompted 'em to grab her. But it sure wasn't reason enough for what they did, and I ain't sorry for how it went down with 'em when they're the ones who took my girl from her _home_."

JJ looked still more purple, his eyes narrowed as he considered all that Anton was saying and the producers were calling for a break. "Thank you for coming to tell your story," he said before he did a quick preview of the next segment — still the same story, but without Anton. Just a chance for JJ to rage about the whole situation.

Anton let out a breath of relief when the cameras went off, and JJ spun to face him. "You keep me updated on this story. Mrs. Wagner has my phone number," he said, looking furious.

Anton nodded. "Really, thanks for this," he said.

JJ shook his head, pulling on the end of his mustache. "Simply outrageous," he muttered to himself. "Most ridiculous thing I've heard in years."

"Mr, Jameson, if you think that's outrageous, you haven't heard half of what my baby girl comes home talking about," Anton said, shaking his head as he stood up. "I notice your show didn't cover the camp they found up in North Dakota back in October either."

"The _what_?" JJ goggled at Anton and then spun toward Kate with a look that demanded answers.

"We, uh, didn't exactly take picture evidence before we leveled it," Kate explained, leaning on one of the cameras.

JJ threw both hands up in the air. " _What the hell is going on around here?_ "

"If we'd had proof, don't you think I'd have called you?"

"You were _there_!"

"I was busy getting shot at," Kate defended, one hand on her hip.

JJ seemed to turn an even deeper purple as he leveled his finger at her. "An entire building — supplies — there's no way it disappears into the wind. I'll find it."

"Good luck. It was on government ground and totally classified," Kate said.

"You can't just — I'm not going to — this is _unacceptable_!" JJ bellowed even as the producer was giving them the two minute mark.

"Yeah, I know."

"Nobody knew about any of this?" JJ looked steadily more furious. "No. That's not how things work in this country. I'm going to find that proof, Bishop, and so help me, when I do—"

"I'll bring you flowers and heart medication," she promised sweetly.

JJ glared at her, but by that point, they were getting close to live, so the crew asked Kate and Anton to please leave before they made their boss incoherently angry — or moreso than usual — just before filming.

Kate gave a few of her friends on the crew hugs on the way out and then threw her arms around Anton as they headed for the elevator. "And _you_ — you were magnificent!" she gushed.

"I just told him what happened."

"You wound him up like a toy!" Kate grinned at him. "That's a particular purple shade, my friend. And it spells 'menace' to anyone who earns it — which is the MRD this time." She clapped her hands together and cackled with glee. "I am _so excited_ to hear the anti-MRD 'menace to our democracy' tirades he'll be putting out for the next little while." She held up a hand before Anton could say anything. "I gotta call Spidey. He's gonna love this. C'mon. Let's go celebrate."


	14. The Leslie Initiative

**Chapter 14: "The Leslie Initiative"**

It didn't take long for the outrage over what had happened with the MRD and Leslie Ann to spread nationwide, especially with JJ actively spearheading a campaign to look into what _else_ the MRD had been up to that had been entirely overlooked.

There was a lot to cover — and Peter Parker had some of his best videos that consisted entirely of comparing JJ's face to different shades found in nature.

Lilacs. Sunsets. Stop signs.

But it had gotten to a point that there was simply no way for any politician to ignore it. Senator Cleary, who was back to working in the Senate after losing in the primaries the year before, was the first to put forward a bill that would make it illegal for the MRD to use its relationship with police to escape investigation or arrest — though the bill was tied up in committee, to Cleary's frustration, over some of the wording that her colleagues said was 'too broad'.

A few others gave speeches. Even the reviled Senator Robbins was forced to admit when he was cornered by reporters that "you can't blame a man for trying to help his daughter."

And when it came to the White House, the new president Bradley had taken a bit longer to respond than people liked, though the new initiative he announced seemed to be, to many people, a huge leap forward.

It was called the Leslie Initiative. In it, the president was taking executive action to set up a task force within the Justice Department specifically for mutant-related complaints. While there would be a central force at the federal level, the initiative also mandated that police nationwide be retrained in handling Leslie Initiative cases — that is, cases in which mutants were being targeted or otherwise endangered — as the task force grew and others like it were implemented at a local level.

"It should never be the case that a father has to go through all this simply to keep his daughter alive," President Bradley had said in an address to the nation. "I think we can all agree, mutant and human alike, that what happened earlier this month was nothing short of a tragedy. This task force is dedicated to giving mutants a chance to ask for help. Under this initiative, it will never be the case that a father calls police and gets no response."

"I can't promise that we'll be able to immediately address every wrong while we are still just beginning this initiative," he continued. "But it's my hope that as we work together as a community, we'll reach a point in our great nation's history where stories like this will never darken the pages of history books again."

And in the living room of the mansion, Leslie Ann made a horrible face at the TV in the living room where she and Neil were doing homework. "Do they have to use _my_ name?" she grumbled.

"Well, the Anton Initiative doesn't sound as cool," Neil said with a small, teasing smile.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, but did they have to?"

"Cheer up," Neil said, bumping her shoulder with his. "I mean, it actually sounds pretty good. The government's _never_ done something like this before for mutants. I mean, even if they _are_ just doing it because everybody's all outraged."

"Exactly," Leslie Ann grumbled, her arms crossed as she leaned back into the couch. "I just wish everyone would stop … bringing it up. Now I'm stuck with this story _forever_."

"It's not that bad—"

"Yeah, I'm the Leslie Initiative girl. Poor thing. Can't even get my name right!" she grumbled.

Neil sat back with her and let out his breath. "Yeah, that part I'd be mad about," he admitted. "If they're going to name something after you, they should do it right."

"Right?" Leslie Ann stuck out her lower lip in a pout.

"We should come up with an X-Man name for you," Neil suggested. "So you can use that instead while this is still blowing up all over the place."

"I told you I quit the team," she said.

"Yeah, but I don't think it's permanent," Neil said, and when Leslie Ann raised her eyebrows at him, he shrugged and smirked. "You said you wanted to be a police officer when you were a kid. And you were an X-Man as soon as you were old enough. You clearly want to help people."

Leslie Ann tried to glare at him for that one and found that she really couldn't. "Fine," she muttered, her arms still crossed.

"So… do you have any ideas?" Neil asked.

"On a name? Not really," she admitted. "Everybody else on the team has one."

"Then it's really overdue," Neil reasoned.

"What about you, blue boy?" Leslie Ann shot back.

Neil just grinned. "I'm going to be a computer programmer. I don't _need_ an X-Man name."

"I like Neon for you," she said with an impish grin.

"That's… actually, you know what? That's pretty good," he had to laugh.

"I think it's easier to come up with names for other people," she admitted. "I tried to think of something for me, but it just ends up sounding stupid when I say it out loud."

"Yeah, well, we'll think of something," Neil said, nodding seriously as he grabbed a notebook from the table so they could start writing down ideas.

After a few failed tries, though, they started to dissolve into giggles as the search for a name turned from an honest attempt into joking around when Leslie Ann whispered, "You know, I should have gotten flight powers. Then I could have been, like, legacy to the Wright Brothers name or something."

Neil stared at her for a moment before he burst into a laugh. "Yeah, but what about a secret identity?"

"What secret identity? We're all registered. I could so be Orvillette or something."

"That's a horrible name."

"It's not my fault Orville and Wilbur are such stupid boy names."

"We're not calling you Orvillette. I'd never be able to keep a straight face."

"It would be funny, though."

"Yeah, but your name's already perfect," he told her.

She shook her head. "I thought the whole point was that I need a new one."

"Just until this whole thing blows over," Neil said.

"It's a government program now. It's like ... it's like Miranda rights."

"It is so not."

"It's like Amber alerts."

"Leslie Ann—"

"It is!" She threw her hands up in the air. "That's what happens to people who get government stuff named after them!"

"Yeah, but they named it wrong. 'Leslie Ann' is _way_ better than 'Leslie'," Neil argued.

"Only 'cause my parents use my first and middle name all the time."

"I think it's cool."

Leslie Ann shook her head. "I used to have to tell all my teachers in school to correct the way they called my name."

"Sort of a Caroline-Carolyn situation?"

"You're not funny."

"Just a little bit?" He grinned at her, and she rolled her eyes, shoving him in the shoulder, and the two of them fell quiet for a little bit while she was still giving him her most dramatic glare.

"So... flower names are out, huh?" he finally asked as he looked over the list of crossed-out plant names.

"Yeah, I really don't want to end up with something that sounds like people can eat me alive when I've already got a victims unit named after me," she said grumpily.

"That's not what—"

"It doesn't matter," she said, waving her hand at him.

"Hey." Neil turned so he was facing her directly. "You're tougher than just about anybody I know, okay? You're _way_ more terrifying than me," he added, this time with a little smile.

"You're not scary, Neil."

"Exactly." He nodded once and then took a breath, settling his shoulders. "You, on the other hand, you're a force of nature."

"Yeah, literally," she said, unable to stop the smirk.

He nodded once and then screwed up all his courage before he leaned in and kissed her. When she looked totally shocked, he flushed purple. "So… right. The flower names are out…" he tried to cover until she let out a little giggle and leaned over to kiss him right back.

"Didn't think that was a thing in common areas," K muttered softly enough for the two teens to hear her. "Usually they're sneakier." Logan glanced over at the two of them and nodded in agreement, though they didn't say anything else as the teenagers split apart.

Both of them were blushing hard, and Neil stammered something, though it was Leslie Ann who managed a "How long have you been standing there?"

"Just came in," Logan told her. "Not like it's hard to figure out though when you're trying to suck each other's fillings out."

"We … just…" Neil spluttered.

"You _can't_ tell my dad!" Leslie Ann said at the same time.

"Why would I do that?" Logan asked with a frown.

"I don't know, but you can't, because he'll totally have a stroke."

"Yeah, that's not how I work, kiddo." Logan was chuckling to himself at how worked up she was over the very idea.

"We ... we were just trying to come up with an X-Man name for Leslie Ann," Neil said, finally getting his voice back.

"Yeah? Whatcha got so far?" Logan asked, as he took a seat on the other side of the room.

"Nothing really," Leslie Ann admitted.

"Come on; let's hear 'em," K agreed.

"We were just… writing down plant names to see if any of them sounded good," Neil said, showing the two of them the notebook with a list of scratched-out names.

Logan raised an eyebrow and tried not to be too obnoxious. "You think you're gonna make 'em quake in their boots with a handle like 'Begonia'?"

" _That's_ my problem," Leslie Ann said. "But I don't really think I'd like 'Venus Fly Trap' either."

"The uniform would be interesting," K mused. "Maybe you're looking at it the wrong way."

"Well, I know there's some cool plant names that aren't flowers. Like… 'Redwood' or something. But I don't think it fits me either."

Logan made a face and shook his head. "No, you don't want to stick to something that small. Need something that sounds more powerful. Leave an impression."

"Yeah, but it's hard to translate 'Force of Nature' into a name," Neil said with a small smile.

The two ferals shared a look, and Logan seemed to mull it over for a moment as the teenagers continued to scribble down and cross out names. "Could go with something like 'Amazon' or 'Congo'. Lot bigger and farther-reaching than one plant."

"Aren't Amazons warrior women too?" Leslie Ann asked, seeming to brighten up.

"Which fits," K said, nodding. "Since we are absolutely teaching you to kick ass."

"Yeah, since I was ten," she said with a small smirk.

"You're already too damn tall," K added. "It fits. Try it out."

Leslie Ann tipped her head to the side and mouthed the word 'Amazon' a few times to roll it around her tongue. "Yeah… I think I can work with that," she said, starting to smile a little more.

"What about the day-glo boyfriend?" Logan teased.

Neil quickly held up both hands. "Hey, I just want to write software. Maybe design a video game. I'm not an X-Man."

"Great; so use that as your company name," K replied. "It should be a reflection of you anyhow."

"I told him I like 'Neon'," Leslie Ann said with a crooked grin.

"Yeah that was pretty clear when we walked in," Logan said dryly.

She flushed bright red. "I… I meant for a name."

"Uh-huh," he said, shaking his head.

"I like the name too," Neil said, trying to help.

But Logan and K were both giving them a _look._ And smirking waaaay too much.

"Oh my gosh. Please stop." Leslie Ann covered her face with both hands.

The two of them were chuckling to themselves, but it didn't help Leslie Ann one bit when Logan shook his head and laughed out "no."

"Do you do this to everyone?" Neil asked, similarly red-faced. "I mean, there's other couples…"

Logan grinned and got to his feet, pulling K along with him. "What do you think?"

"You can't tell my Uncle Scott either," Leslie Ann warned.

"Tell 'im what?" Logan asked, smiling her way as the two ferals left them alone again.

"Just… stop… looking at me like that," Leslie Ann said, covering her face with her hands again — and more or less staying that way until the ferals were gone.


	15. The Fallout from the Initiative

**Chapter 15: "The Fallout from the Initiative"**

While JJ had been investigating the actions of the MRD over the years — and boy, was there so much material to work with — he had decided to take a small break to look into this new Leslie Initiative thing.

After all, it was a followup to the story that he'd broken, and he wanted to keep an eye on it.

For the first few weeks, everything seemed to be perfectly above-board. The records were clean; mutants who approached any Leslie Initiative office to file a complaint had their complaints logged, and investigations were launched. There wasn't an arrest on record yet, which was the first red flag for JJ, though there had been official reprimands, as well as funding cutoffs, which JJ knew were actually rough considering the amount of funding they were talking about.

The second red flag came two weeks in, though, when he recognized the same last name from one of the early complaints on a new complaint. Different first name — apparently someone's grandmother coming to ask for help finding her grandson, who had gone missing.

JJ went back to pull the records on the grandson and kept them on hand, keeping an eye on the records. One missing kid didn't make a pattern… but when two weeks later there was a local news story of a mutant going missing from her workplace — another name from the Leslie Initiative — JJ started to take notice.

The records for the Initiative were clear enough that there wasn't any evidence that the initiative itself was behind it, but it was clear that someone — the MRD or another entity — was either watching and monitoring the initiative or getting their information from it.

JJ just had the two names so far, but it was enough that he was going to run a segment on it, calling for tighter security around the names of people who took their complaints to the initiative so that the government program wasn't used as a way to find mutants and… do… something. JJ still couldn't find where these mutants had disappeared to, but the fact that they _had_ disappeared was concerning on its own.

He would be doing the segment later on that day, so he wanted to do a few more checks. He'd call up Mrs. Bishop-Wagner to double-check — if the X-Men had found these missing mutants, it wouldn't have been widely reported. And he wanted to have the full story.

So, he called in to the mansion when she didn't pick up on her professional line for the publishing company, knowing if she wasn't at the company she was at the school, though he couldn't help but fall into a glare when it was Wolverine who answered the phone.

"I need to talk to Kate Wagner about a story I'm running," JJ explained.

"She's not around right now," Logan replied. "What d'you need?"

"I'm running a story on a couple mutants that have disappeared and wanted to know if your team had picked them up so I could get their side of the story."

"You got names for me or am I supposed to be suddenly psychic?"

JJ blinked. "Alright then. There's a Justin Gonzalez and a Paula Heinz. Familiar to you?"

Logan thought about it for just a moment. "Haven't got anyone with a name to match. Maybe I can look into it. Where were they?"

"Gonzalez was in DC — one of the first Leslie Initiative complaints — and according to a second filed by his grandmother, he was last seen in the DC area. Heinz called in her complaint; she was last seen in Spanish Fork in Utah."

"When are you goin' live?" Logan asked as he scribbled down the details.

"Three hours."

"I'll have you an answer before then."

"Either way, I'm running their disappearances as a story. I'd rather run their rescues. Or at least the resolution."

There was a pause as Logan held his breath and thought it over. "If we can figure it out, I'll let Scott know you wanna talk to the kids. _When_ we find them."

"Neither of them are minors. I think the MRD has had its fill of PR disasters with kids — if it is them."

"Then that'll be their call," Logan replied. "I'll look into the detainment centers first."

JJ's grip on the phone tightened. "You know for a fact they exist, then?"

"Who the hell do you think you're talkin' to?" Logan countered with a bit of heat. "Of course they do. If you think we haven't run into them already, you're nuts."

"Proof, Wolverine. I've already heard about North Dakota from Hawkeye, but the only thing I've got is a military training camp at those coordinates."

"What do you need for proof?" Logan asked. "I can drag you along and drop you in the middle if you wanna be a pain in my ass."

"Photographic evidence. Records. Something tangible. If I go on air talking about detainment, they'll pack it all up."

Logan chuckled. "I don't think three hours is gonna be far enough out. But sure. Copies headed your way."

"Copies of previous detainment centers or current ones? Those are two different stories."

"Current. Don't got a use for old ones that have already been defunct and levelled." He turned to say something to the bamf next to him before he went back to the phone. "Office in the same spot?"

"As always." JJ frowned.

"Be nice to my messengers, John," Logan replied before he hung up the phone and sent the bamfs on their copying and transfer mission.

* * *

JJ's broadcast about the missing mutants who had gone to the Leslie Initiative didn't include detainment centers — for the moment — as he clearly hadn't had enough time to go through it all _and_ cover the rant on how the initiative wasn't protecting mutant identities properly. He did have the information that Logan had sent him on the two missing mutants, though.

The broadcast had only just ended, and the team had listened to some of it on the flight out. Rachel had been able to pinpoint the two missing mutants, which meant the X-Men were headed out to go bust up a detainment center.

As the jet set down, Kate reached over to skew the little reporter's hat that one of the bamfs was wearing as he manned the little camera that she and Kurt had gotten just for their intrepid reporter. The little guy was already recording and looking totally serious and focused on his task, even if he was giggling with excitement over being entrusted with capturing the evidence for them.

The bamfs that had come along for the ride were the only ones excited, though, as the rest of the group was ready to tear the place to the ground.

"Well, Dad — want to knock?" Rachel couldn't help asking Scott as she gestured at the center's heavy doors, and he gave her a dry look before doing more or less just that — blasting them an opening so they could get down to work.

"Knock, knock," Scott deadpanned quietly.

The team of X-Men were immediately met with MRD agents, who rushed forward with their new guns in hand, only for Rachel to reach out with one hand in either direction and yank them away, tossing them over the wall and out of reach — and freeing up the rest of the team to burst forward with the powers _on_.

K and Logan moved together, no claws being used as they fought their way through the group of men trying to shoot them with tasers — though the way the two little ferals were dodging, all that would happen was another MRD agent inadvertently stepping into the line of fire.

Kate was working with Bobby as he iced up to get her a little higher — to where she'd spotted an overlooking, central building that looked like it would probably have important intel and higher-ups locked up in there. Bobby simply shattered the glass with his ice, and the two of them slid into the room neatly — arrows and ice flying until the room's occupants were all taken care of and the two of them could focus on getting any intel on any _other_ places like this.

Scott was focusing his attacks on cutting a path to where the mutants were being held, and with Logan and K joining him for back up, there was a wicked path of destruction in no time.

The path opened up to show prisons on one side, a very bleak-looking school on another, and ahead... laboratories. The three of them shared a look and split — one in each direction.

Scott ran toward the prison and let out a grumble when he saw that there were a few people detained there — all of them wearing inmate uniforms and inhibitor collars. On seeing Scott, they looked torn between hopeful and terrified.

He rushed to help them, only asking quickly why they were there — Leslie Initiative — before Scott blasted the locks off their doors and told them to follow him.

The little group stood back as Scott fought through the guards on his way to find Logan — though that path was easy enough to follow with the unconscious MRD agents lying on the floor all the way to the laboratories.

When he got there, Scott was not surprised in the least to find Logan pounding on a doctor that seemed to have had a young woman strapped down to an exam table. The girl was sitting up and rubbing her wrists, staring wide-eyed at Logan as he worked the doctor over, obviously on the edge and ready to snap, though he continued to keep his claws sheathed.

By that time, Kate and Bobby had found all the documentation they needed — and knew exactly how many mutants were being held. Between the four that had followed Scott out of the prisons, the girl in the lab, and the three that Rachel had found in a different prison bloc, they were only short four more people, according to Kate and Bobby.

A quick search of the lab found three more mutants, all three similarly clad in inmate uniforms and collars, locked in a room further off from the labs and likely awaiting the same treatment as the girl had gone through.

Bobby broke through the locks on the door by pushing ice into the lock and expanding it, and from there, Kate simply blew the labs with four explosive arrows timed at once. For something like this, she had an entire extra quiver just filled with explosives stripped at her side.

"That's almost everyone — where else haven't we looked?" Bobby said, helping a particularly shaken little boy of maybe twelve keep up with the rest of the group.

"I can check the prisons again," Scott offered.

But the easy pace of setting mutants free wasn't about to last any longer when Logan's head popped up and he looked toward the door. It wasn't until the second time that K called out that Scott even heard her calling Logan's name — and sounding incredibly upset.

"How bad do you think this is going to be?" Scott asked, but Logan was focused on getting to her _now._

There weren't many guards, and Scott held his breath when he saw that one was most certainly dead judging by the angle his head was to his neck.… He was ready to get after K for it — until he saw what was going on.

She was on her knees with a little girl clutched in her arms. The girl couldn't have been more than a few months old, but she was clearly born with a physical mutation, with a beautiful coat of white, spotted fur. It only took a moment longer for Scott to realize why K was so upset. K was clearly working on getting the baby to _breathe_ … and she didn't have the air to explain it as she focused on the little one.

It wasn't until Logan joined her in working on the little girl that she told Scott what happened. "He _tried to smother her_ ," K defended, though it didn't miss his notice that her hands were shaking slightly. "I'm not sure …"

"How is she doing?"

K looked up at him and shook her head slowly. "She needs a doctor, either way."

"She's breathing," Logan said, gently getting to his feet and then handing the little one back to K. "But she should see Hank sooner than later."

K held her carefully and looked up at Scott. "This was the only little one I found. No sign of any others."

"Kate and Bobby said there were twelve, and she makes twelve," Scott said with a nod. "Rachel's double-checking now, but this should be everyone."

Logan put his arm around K's shoulders and started to steer her out, with Scott in the lead and the others between them. The group of former prisoners got into the jet first, and Kate and Bobby shared a look before she broke into a grin once they'd gotten everyone loaded up and hit a button at the base of her bow that set off a whole new round of explosions inside the compound and got a serious bonfire going.

"Gee, I think there were flammable things in there," Kate said airily as Bobby chuckled.

"I hope it's not anywhere important," Bobby snickered.

"Yeah, like the control room."

The group that they'd pulled out of the facility were all gathered up, scared and unsure of their rescuers even as Rachel started to release them from the inhibitor collars. With most of the focus on the rescued mutants, then, it very nearly escaped the rest of their notice when K and Logan went to their usual spot in the far back of the plane, curled up with the little one — until the bamfs decided to investigate.

The little blue imps were fascinated by the furry little girl — she was far fluffier than any of the elflings, and with decidedly feline features, long white and black fluffy tail included. The reporter bamf in particular had gone from recording the chaos to getting several pictures of the little one curled into K now that the mission was over, cackling with glee the whole time as all the little guys chattered away.

"Guys, give her some space," Kate called out, shaking her head at their antics.

"They're jealous of the fluff," K told her.

"They've got enough of it in their heads," Kate said, and one of the little imps stuck his tongue out at her. "Hey, it's true."

"Kate, you should come see her — chase off the imps," Logan said.

Kate smiled and got up to cross the jet and drop into the seat by K, shooing the bamfs with both hands before she peered over K's shoulder. "Oh," she said in a nearly heartbroken tone. "She's, what, barely Kaleb's age?"

"Hard to tell with all the fur, to be honest," K said. "They tried to _smother her._ "

Kate's mouth fell open. "They…"

"They _did_ smother her," Logan corrected. "We had to work to get her back."

Fury flashed just behind Kate's eyes. "Well, turn the plane around. I want to rethink my arrow placement."

"Oh, that guy is dead," K promised in a dark tone.

"Good." Kate nodded once and looked even more upset as she peered at the little one. "She's beautiful."

"Want to hold her?" K asked. "She's lighter than she looks. All fluff."

"Hey, I've never been able to turn down little fluff balls," Kate said with a grin as K gently tipped the little girl into her arms and Kate's grin widened. "Bobby and I found their records. We can look, see what her name is, what family she has…" She leaned down and rubbed noses with the little girl.

"She purrs too," Logan told Kate.

Kate beamed. "Oh. That's beautiful. We _have_ to get her family up — if she has any — so she can play with my little squeakers."

Bobby was sifting through the files already until he found the notes on the little one to hand them across the plane. "Might want to rethink the family reunion. This one says the parents were the point of contact for the MRD retrieval."

"No," K said in almost a whisper. "I want their names."

Bobby waved the paper in front of her face. "Names and address."

Rachel leaned over and snatched the paper away from Bobby before K could look at it. "Mmm, no," she said, shaking her head at Bobby. "I've got this one."

"Well then. We just need to pick who keeps her then," K decided.

"Literally anyone at the mansion would do it in a heartbeat," Kate pointed out. "Billy and Teddy would. I bet if you rubbed her purring little self in America's face, she would... And you know really anybody would step up to the plate."

"Well, whoever it is should be prepared for claws," K said. "Purrs aside."

"You two _did_ find her," Bobby pointed out.

"We'll let Hank look her over before we make any plans," K said diplomatically. "And if there are that many offering, she can decide who _she_ wants."

With that decided, then, all that was left was to get everyone on board home. Those former prisoners that had a place to go went there — and the rest were offered a place at the school to stay for safety. So finally, into the wee hours of the next morning, they arrived in Westchester, tired but relieved that all had gone relatively well.

When Logan and K brought the little fluffball down to Hank, though, the blue doctor simply was not prepared for the little chirrup the small girl made as he picked her up, her tail swishing. "They smothered her; we brought her back," Logan explained. "So… I'm sure she'll need a once over."

Hank had her cradled in one hand and found himself shaking his head when he simply couldn't hear what was going on with her breathing or heart for all the purring. "I think we'll need Tyler for this one." The little girl curled up with him, snuggling in and pulling on his fur, totally content where she was.

When Tyler arrived a short time later, still clearly a little sleepy for how early it was, he broke into a grin when he heard the purring and saw what was going on. "Where'd you find her?" Tyler asked as he crossed the room. "She's beautiful."

"She was one of the MRD captives," K told him.

Tyler lost some of his smile at that. "She can't be older than six months," he said with a frown. "She can't even sit up without help."

"They smothered her — we brought her back. Please ... check that she doesn't have any lasting damage," K asked.

Tyler's eyebrows shot up, and he swallowed a growl that surprised him with how fast it came up before he nodded and gently laid a hand on the little girl's head. She pushed her head up into his hand, earning a little smile, and his shoulders slumped with relief when he was through with his scan. "She's alright," he promised.

"Great. Then all we have to do now is round up all the prospective adoptive parents," K said, clapping her hands together. "I've decided she picks."

"So, what, every single couple in the house?" Tyler asked with a smirk, petting the little girl behind the ears and smoothing down the fur there.

"Well, everyone interested," K said. "I doubt that some of them would try."

"What, this little girl?" Tyler shook his head. "I mean, maybe you could count out a few families with a big group already, but come on."

"Like that's a disqualifying factor," Logan chuckled.

"I just meant some of 'em have their hands full," Tyler laughed. "Or did you miss the most recent Summers Family Principal's Office Trip?"

"I think that's his way of saying he's in," K said out of the corner of her mouth.

"You bet I am," he laughed.

"Fight ya for it," K teased.

"You know, I would too," he teased right back.

"I think you have stiff competition from your old man," K said, tipping her head toward Hank; the little girl still had hold of his fur and was purring contentedly.

"Good point," Tyler admitted.

"You should get your mom in here," Logan suggested. "Before Hank brings the kitten home."

Tyler grinned widely and bounded off toward the room off the lab where Daisy and Hank were set up — though with all the excitement going on next door, she was already awake and didn't take long at all to come see what all the fuss was.

When she spotted Hank with the little girl, she broke into a huge grin and rushed over to see for herself. "Oh, she's _gorgeous_ ," Daisy said almost breathlessly.

Hank tipped the little girl so that Daisy could see her better. "She's a bit cuddly."

Daisy grinned wider at him and then tipped her head to the side to catch the little one's attention … and when the little girl looked up at Daisy, there was a little hitch in her purr as she stared wide-eyed at her for a few moments. Daisy picked her up, and the little girl kept eye contact, just staring at her, until Daisy touched noses with her. "What's your name, little girl?"

"Guess that's up to you, Mom," Tyler said with a little smirk at the scene in front of him. It was clear that the little one was entranced with her — and she adored Hank already. If K was serious about enforcing the idea of letting the little one pick, there was already an obvious winner.

"Are you serious?" Daisy asked.

"She needs someone that can handle claws," K said with a perfectly straight face, even though Logan was smirking.

Daisy looked over at K with the dryest look that had ever crossed her face. "Yes. I'm sure I've never seen that before," she said.

K broke into a smile. "Well, great then. If you want her, she has chosen you two already."

"Really?" Daisy broke into a beaming smile that seemed to delight the little girl into a fuzzy-throated giggle.

"That's what we decided. She can go to whoever she picks," Logan said. "So … you're it."

"Well … she… we…" Daisy glanced at Hank, who was grinning outright. "Well, she needs a name, obviously. We need something... " She glanced down at the little girl and rubbed noses with her again. "Something perfect for the pretty little angel."

Hank grinned her way. "I follow your lead on this, my dear."

Daisy grinned right back at him in spades and then looked down at the little girl, pressing her lips together as she thought it over. "Jolie," she said at last. "It … if I remember high school French, it means beautiful."

"Fitting," Hank said. "We'll finish checking her over if she'll calm down enough to stop purring."

"She can't help it," Tyler said with a grin. "I think she likes you, Dad."

"Everyone loves Hank," K said with a smirk before she snagged Logan's arm. "Congratulations!"


	16. The End of the Initiative

**Chapter 16: "The End of the Initiative"**

"You have the strangest intel-gathering techniques I've ever seen," JJ said without looking up when Kate popped into his office with a grin. "Some of this I can't use the audio for with all the chattering and giggling."

"My hands were full," Kate pointed out. "And he's a good photographer. Gets angles no one else can get for his size, not to mention the 'porting so he can get footage in multiple places."

JJ shook his head at that. "Does your team have an official comment on any of the footage?" he asked in a more business-like tone as he gathered some of his notes. "Most of the segment will address the ties between the initiative and the MRD, but obviously, we'll be running this over multiple segments and going in-depth."

"Well, when I talked to the boss man, it was mostly just 'good riddance'," Kate said with a smirk. "Not much you can say otherwise when it comes to this kind of stupid."

"No comment then," JJ said, watching her with a little frown.

"No comment," she agreed, then softened the smirk. "I mean… really. Just watch the tape." She paused and shot him a little smile. "And thank you, by the way. Honestly. You're the one who put together the pattern first, so we were able to get on this sooner than later. It could have been worse."

"Right," JJ said, shaking his head at that.

"I'll be watching the program," she promised sweetly.

"Does that mean that there will be someone available if we need clarification on air?" JJ asked. "Or is it a mystery as always on who we might catch on the phone?"

"Aww, JJ. You missed me," she teased. "I'll stay by the phone if you need me, I promise." With that, she waved jauntily and headed off, still giggling to herself at JJ's expression as she headed down to her car.

* * *

Back at the mansion, several of the residents were watching the program, since everyone knew about the footage and the fact that it had been passed on to JJ.

Leslie Ann had been sitting with Neil when her parents came in the room to join them, and Anton glared at the fact that Neil had his arm around Leslie Ann's shoulders. He very quickly removed the arm from around her shoulders.

"Da-a-a-ad," Leslie Ann grumbled.

Anton smirked her way as he sat down with her mom and his arm around _her_ shoulders. "What?"

Leslie Ann just glared at him for that one.

But once Bobby and Rachel arrived — and more people started to trickle in — Bobby had turned up the volume on the broadcast, and Neil had moved from an arm around her shoulders to holding her hand between them so that they were slightly better hidden.

 _I can tell him to get over it,_ Rachel projected out to Leslie Ann with a grin.

 _He's just…_

 _Yeah, my dad's that way too,_ Rachel said, still grinning. _He got over it. Mostly._

 _Well, at least you have Aunt Annie on your side,_ Leslie Ann projected back with a grin.

 _You've got your mom; she's just too entertained right now by your dad,_ Rachel told her, and Leslie Ann raised both eyebrows and then grinned.

Bobby nudged Rachel with his shoulder and grinned her way. "What're you up to?" he teased.

 _Just family drama,_ she teased him right back and leaned over to kiss him as Leslie Ann broke into a little giggle.

Bobby grinned her way and shook his head, settling back with his arms over the back of the couch and Rachel leaned back against him as JJ started up his program, already a good shade of red as he started off _tearing_ into the MRD for the detainment center they'd set up.

"This oughta be good if he's already this worked up," he muttered.

He wasn't wrong. JJ was working up to a truly magnificent purple as he had a lot of the footage from the raid on the detainment camp playing in the background. "This isn't a matter of politics," he said, sounding absolutely livid. "This is right and wrong. This is _basic human right_. This is wrong, and we all know it."

"It's definitely much better when you're not the focus," K muttered as she snuggled James.

"No kidding," Bobby had to agree, smirking her way.

JJ went on to rage about the camp itself before he moved on to the main point: the fact that almost everyone in it had been involved in the Leslie Initiative.

"This initiative was _supposedly_ set up to give mutants a place to have their voices heard, but what we have here is — there's no other word for it but a straightforward trap," JJ said with venom in his tone. "It's cowardice at its greatest, taking the names of people asking for help — people who are turning to _official means_ to redress their wrongs — and instead carting them off to the militarized menace that is the MRD."

"Spidey's gotta be loving the new menace shtick," Bobby chuckled under his breath.

"The Initiative itself has been sharing its records with the MRD," JJ said, leaning forward in his seat with his eyes flashing. "Our researchers have been able to determine the link between the MRD and the Initiative — and what's more, we've found that the link exists at the highest levels, with the people at the top of this initiative passing on information via private servers." He pulled on his mustache. "This initiative must be abolished before anyone else gets caught up in these human rights atrocities."

From there, JJ went on the simply fall into a rage about the whole thing, criticizing everything from the administration itself to the MRD to the people on Capitol Hill who were standing by — no one involved was safe from his diatribe.

For the most part, the X-Men watching the broadcast were glad to see JJ taking on the Initiative; there hadn't been this kind of media attention on _their_ side before, so it was a good sign. But Leslie Ann just seemed to get quieter the longer the broadcast played, leaning on Neil's shoulder with a little frown until the commercial break hit and she excused herself to go to the bathroom — and headed up the stairs toward her room.

"Hey," Logan called out before she could get too far away — but was still out of sight of the rest of the crowd. "Don't go runnin' off because of _that._ "

She paused and turned back to him, rubbing her arm self-consciously. "I don't need to hear the rest of it," she said. "It's just going to be a lot of ranting about how horrible people are."

He let out a little breath and pulled her over to wrap her up in a hug. "Not your fault, darlin'. Don't let it get to you."

She nodded but still ended up burying her face in his shoulder all the same. "It's _my_ name," she muttered.

"No one asked you for it, you didn't agree to it," Logan said, pulling her in a little bit tighter. "And it could always be worse."

"There ... there's like, a dozen people who got locked up and _they_ don't know I didn't … it's my name on the papers that those horrible people signed them over to the MRD. It doesn't matter if that's true. It's my name. I'm stuck with this stupid initiative on _my_ name for all of history. Kids're going to read about it ten years down the line. Oh, Leslie Ann. The girl who launched a whole initiative of awful."

"Still has nothin' to do with you," he promised. "That was a case of a politician using a cute kid. Says more about him than it does you. And _you_ didn't sign those people over." He kept her in a tight hug until she seemed like she was alright, and then after she gave him a weak little smile, he made sure to catch her gaze. "Hey. I know your aunt married a Summers, but you're gonna worry yourself sick before you're twenty-one tryin' to take responsibility for people that don't deserve your concern. Especially the idiots behind that bill." Logan gave her a look to be sure he was getting his point across. "If you're going to be continually worked up about stuff like this … who am I gonna take to Japan with me next time? You can't fight ninjas when you're worried about stuff like this."

Her smile got a little wider at that. "I'd really like to go back to Japan," she admitted. "I loved it there."

"Your Uncle Scott has never gone to Japan with me for _fun_ ," Logan told her. "He doesn't see what's fun about it."

"Well, _I'm_ not a Summers," she pointed out with a twinkle of laughter in her eyes.

"You're makin' the same face," he told her.

"It's learned behavior," she said, still smiling.

He looked down his nose at her for a moment with a falsely harsh expression. "Well, _unlearn_ it."

"If I do, can we go to Japan over the summer break?"

"I was gonna take K back for spring break if the plans for babysitters works out," he told her.

"Well, I don't want to get in your way if it's just you two."

"Oh, she wants to kill ninjas," he said with a smirk. "Just doesn't want the little ones in the crossfire. If Kate hears about it, she'll fight you for the spot."

"She'll have to get in line," Leslie Ann said with a little smirk as she drew herself up.

"Attagirl," Logan said with a little smile before he gave her another quick squeeze.

* * *

The new administration couldn't back away fast enough from the Leslie Initiative, but that didn't mean it was fading out of the spotlight, not with JJ on the rampage and the president's political opponents gleefully seizing on the opportunity to take him down.

One of which, actually, was Senator Misty Cleary.

The good senator had already announced that she would be heading up a congressional investigation into the Leslie Initiative and everything that had happened, and to that end, she had asked Scott to meet with her so she could be sure to get the full scope of the situation.

As she'd done the first time they'd met four years ago, Cleary met Scott and Kate — Kate had come with Scott for both moral support and for the fact that she knew how to deal with politicians and businesspeople on a _friendly_ basis instead of the usual tooth-and-nail fighting the X-Men had gotten accustomed to — at the door of her office with a broad smile and an offer of a Coke if they wanted one.

"I keep a few cans in the mini fridge by my desk. I'd go mad without 'em," she told Scott as she popped the lid on one of the cans. She gestured for the two X-Men to take a seat and then let out a heavy sigh. "Well, it is nice to meet with y'all again, even under the circumstances. Let's try and not make this a cyclical thing every four years, alright?"

"I'd really rather it not be," Scott agreed as he sat down.

"Don't get me wrong; you're not half bad people-wise. But this whole business with the Initiative…" She rubbed her temples and then shook her head. "I wanted to ask if you or anyone on your team'd be willing to testify once we get the investigation rolling."

Scott took in a deep breath and nodded. "I think most of the team would go along with that. It'd be helpful if you told me who you think you'd like, and then I can work on it on my side."

"Anyone that was on that tape would be considered a key witness," Clearly told him honestly. "I know y'all are busy dealing with the fallout, but anyone you can send down — as many as you can spare. More voices means more power in this kind of thing."

"If that's who you think will do the most good, then I'll make sure they can get loose," Scott agreed. "I don't think any of them would say no."

Cleary grinned at that. "Wonderful. I think that will really make a difference." She paused. "And if you can ... the Wright family. I don't know how they feel about being in the spotlight…"

"It's been hard on Leslie Ann," Scott admitted. "But Anton and Rachel are pretty ticked off still."

"I'm sure," Cleary said. "And I'm sure they're tired of the media circus, but it really would be good to have them come out as well." She held up both hands. "If they don't want to, that's fine."

"I'll ask," Scott agreed with a little smirk. "But I'm sure Rachel at _least_ would go along."

Clearly gave him a grateful smile. "That would be perfect. I've already spoken with a few people who tried to use the Leslie Ann Initiative. They weren't picked up, but they weren't helped, either. I've been a little wary of reaching out to those that were picked up; I don't know what kind of trauma they endured, and I don't want to open up fresh wounds. I don't suppose you have anyone on your team that could comment on their state?"

"On the team? I'm sure," Scott said. "If you wanted to speak with some of the kids we rescued, I'll take a look at who's in the best place mentally to consider it."

"We have a strong case without it," Cleary promised. "The evidence Jameson gathered alone is enough. But I really want to nail Bradley, to be frank. And keep it from happening again."

"I guess I should be asking you, at this point ... what do you need outside of testimony?" Scott asked. "It's no secret that we have a couple of top notch … experts."

Cleary almost laughed. "Well, if I had a wish list, it would be every scrap of evidence you have on these creeps, but I'm not greedy," she said. "Really. Just send me records — who was involved, what the connection was to the Initiative. I have my own investigators looking into the people in charge to see how many ties we can find to the MRD if you want to help with that. We've already found a former MRD agent running the records office. And we've subpoenaed just about every record they had on file. I'm not sure what more you can do, really, besides bring the damning testimonials." She smiled. "Sometimes, in this circus we call politics, the difference between winning 'n losing is how it plays on camera, and as good as our records are, getting someone on camera talking about detainment camps will clinch it."

"And you're just doing this out of, what, the goodness of your heart?" Kate piped up after a pause. "Sorry, but I don't believe that of _anyone_ in politics."

"Well, aside from taking down a huge political rival and derailing whatever twisted agenda he had planned after the Initiative?" Cleary asked. "Yeah, alright. This will be a big political win for me. I won't lie to you. Running the investigation means if we take him down, I'll get the credit on the Hill."

Kate raised an eyebrow and looked toward Scott. "Alright… your call, boss man."

"I'll talk to the people you mentioned," Scott said. "But it might help if you came to us and met with some of them yourself."

Cleary thought it over for a moment and then nodded. "Alright. I'll have my chief of staff call the school. She knows my schedule better than I do. But you're right; that's probably a good idea."

"Admittedly, it might be necessary to get some of them to cooperate. Not all of us are very willing to trust a politician — no offense," Scott said.

"None taken. You really _shouldn't_ trust politicians," she said with a little smirk. "I'd know." She stood up to offer Scott her hand. "Then I'll see you again in New York, yes? I don't think I've ever been up there."

"Looking forward to it," Scott replied as he took her hand.

* * *

Senator Cleary was more than a little awestruck when she arrived at the institute. She had flown out to New York but elected to drive the rest of the way, and the late spring surroundings of upstate New York were simply beautiful.

The mansion itself was, as ever, breathtaking, so she couldn't help but show it as she arrived, eyes wide and taking it all in. Scott had told her to come by at the end of the students' spring break so that it wouldn't be quite as hectic, but she was still surprised by how many mutants there were all in one place. It was one thing to read about it and another thing to see it, and it really was surreal.

She didn't know it, but her timing was perfect. Logan and K had just returned from Japan — it had been only the two of them on a little excursion to kill some ninjas, stretch their legs, and to clear the path so they could be sure it was relatively safe to bring Leslie Ann later that summer — so at the moment, everyone that had been at the detainment center in the footage Jameson had leaked was at the mansion.

Scott and Storm greeted her at the door, both of them wearing little smiles at the clearly awestruck expression on the Senator's face. "Welcome to our home," Ororo said warmly as Cleary stepped inside.

"The pictures don't do it justice," Cleary said, matching Ororo's warm smile, though it was clear to her even with as stunned as she was by how big the school was that the famed X-Men simply didn't have any idea how to proceed with her.

"So ... did you want to meet with everyone separately?" Scott asked after a moment's pause.

"I don't want it to feel like an interrogation," Cleary said, and Scott nodded quickly at that. "It's fine if we start out in a group, and if I have any further points of clarification…"

"Any of the students who agree to speak with you will have a teacher present," Storm told her.

"Of course. I'd be more comfortable with that as well," Cleary said, nodding quietly as she followed the two tall X-Men down the halls.

Finally, they arrived at a large room that had a table big enough to seat several people, and Cleary took the seat that Scott had gestured for her to take as she pulled out her notes from her case and arranged them in front of her.

"Most of our students — and, frankly, our staff — aren't exactly thrilled about dealing with politicians," Scott told her in a slightly guarded tone.

"I can honestly say that doesn't surprise me in the least," Cleary said simply, still arranging her files before she looked up at the two X-Men. "I promise I don't bite," she said in an attempt at humor that got a light little smile from Storm at least.

Still, it was painfully new ground for all three of them, and Cleary was relieved when the other X-Men involved started to trickle in. Nerves were hell to deal with, and nervous X-Men, even for how well she knew them ... well, she couldn't help being nervous too.

It was particularly off-putting when Logan and K arrived and seemed to size her up from the moment they stepped into the room. Cleary had dealt with some real characters in Washington, but there was something honestly deadly about that look, and she swallowed a reflex to ask if they did that to everyone or just politicians.

She managed a little smile once the X-Men had gathered and fiddled with the papers in front of her. "I'll make this as painless as possible," she promised. "I just wanted to go to the source. I can't afford to be running a prosecution of a Justice Department initiative and have something come out to be hearsay."

The senior members of the team all shared a look before, one by one, they seemed to sit back in their chairs, waiting to hear exactly what it was this woman had to say.

Cleary sat up a bit straighter and cleared her throat. "Right. I'm only here in a fact-finding capacity, but I'd like to speak with each of you on the possibility of testifying before Congress. Like I told Mr. Summers, investigations like this are just as much about appearances as they are about what's being investigated, and in-person testimony is better than dry reports." She gave them a small smile. "Sorry about that."

"I've already agreed to go — and nobody on the team has to testify if they don't want to," Scott said. He paused and looked Logan's way. "But I'd like you to give her a chance." And for his part, Logan locked on to Scott for a moment, unblinking, before he shifted his focus back to Cleary.

Cleary cleared her throat again and leaned forward. "The Leslie Initiative has been halted. There's been an official injunction and everything. But what I'm trying to do is hold these people accountable — publicly — for the human cost of … sorry. Do you use phrases like 'human cost'?"

"Collateral damage," Logan corrected.

Cleary frowned his way. "That makes it sound further away from what it is," she told him.

"It's what it's always been called," he replied. "Outside of the beltway."

She frowned at him again before she shook her head. "Whatever the terminology," she said, "the point is that this is the perfect opportunity to drag these hate-mongers kicking and screaming into the light so they can be held publicly accountable."

Logan shook his head and let out a breath, clearly not believing that this was going to go anywhere.

"It's worth exploring," Scott said carefully.

Cleary nodded, but when the mood of the table didn't seem to change, she took a deep breath and turned so that she was facing Logan more fully. "I've gotten five hundred and eighty-seven calls to my office, and only one-third of those were hateful when I announced I was going to investigate the Initiative. The public is behind this," she said, her tone perfectly even. "Now, I've read your book. I know you can tell if I'm lying. Have I lied to you?"

"Just because you haven't lied doesn't mean you have half a prayer," he replied.

"So you won't help me," she said, her shoulders slumping the slightest bit.

But Logan shook his head. "Didn't say that," he replied easily. "If I wasn't plannin' on it, I wouldn't be here. I've just learned not to get my hopes up. Especially when it comes to politics."

Cleary broke into a beaming smile and nodded, reshuffling the notes in front of her in a nervous tic. "Great. That will help, really. Putting a face to it — a voice to it." She paused and looked toward K. "That little girl… you have no idea how many outraged phone calls I've had just about her. I don't think you realize the impact your rescue had on people."

"She's taken care of," K replied in the same kind of tone Logan was using.

"Good," Cleary said. "I think people have become desensitized to seeing mutants in collars, to be honest, but that little girl — and the one in the lab — and of course, the Wright family… well, if you'll pardon my being blunt about it, it helped to have a human family in the spotlight." She took a deep breath. "Obviously, the footage speaks for itself, but there is so much more to the story — the MRD, the Initiative, all of it. Everything leading up to that rescue. I'm just asking for what stories you're willing to give me that will humanize the impact of the Initiative and really drive up the pressure on old Joshua Bradley so he can't make another move like this without getting his political head taken off five minutes into the very thought."

The two ferals shared a look, and then Logan looked to Scott with a minute nod as if to say 'your show.'

Scott nodded in response. "Right. Everyone who was on the team will have the chance to speak with the senator. A few of the people who were in the camp have agreed to testify as well, but I want staff on hand for anyone who isn't on the team, including Rachel and Anton," he said. "We'll start with Rachel and Logan — since Logan got the call from JJ, and Rachel pinpointed a location, and we'll work chronologically from appearance on the tape from there."

Cleary smiled and nodded. "Thank you. Really," she said before she cleared her throat and got started.

* * *

It had taken longer than Cleary anticipated to get through all the interviews, and she'd had to reschedule a few meetings with her chief of staff and political manager in the meantime. But there was just… so much.

She hadn't expected it. She'd thought that she had been prepared, but when she had asked for previous instances like the Leslie Initiative, she had been frankly overwhelmed by how much there was that had gone unreported.

Cleary had never heard stories like the ones the X-Men could tell.

They hadn't held anything back, either, speaking frankly and with a familiarity with atrocities that was, quite simply, alarming. And she had the feeling that she hadn't even scratched the surface.

It was far more background information than she needed for an investigation into one simple initiative, but Cleary had _wanted_ to know more, stuck somewhere between appalled and morbidly curious. She had sat through every story — and by far the worst had come from Logan and K — though none of the X-Men spared the details when she asked for them.

She was exhausted — mentally, emotionally, and physically — by the time it was through, but she was positive there was so much more left to learn.

Still, she had to pace herself. She would start with the Leslie Initiative and the people who had twisted it into something so heinous. The people in charge would never work again by the time she was through with them — and that wasn't even touching the criminal investigations.

And while President Bradley's fingerprints were all over the thing, he had been careful not to be directly involved beyond just creating the initiative. But Cleary was sure she could nail him. If nothing else, she was going to keep kicking up such a fuss that he wouldn't be able to make a move she didn't know about.

She patted the briefcase full of intelligence. The hearing would be a cinch; the X-Men taking the stand would just be the clincher. It was the next three years that were still ahead that would be the rough part.

 **Notes: And thus ends this volume of the 714! Keep your eyes peeled for Volume 21, "Trouble Comes in Threes" on Canucklehead Cowgirl's profile very soon!**


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